CHINA  and  AMERICA 
TO-DAY 


ARTHUR  •  H  •  SMITH 


3  1822  01706  6846 


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China  and  America  To-dav         * 


AUTHORITATIVE  WORKS  OF 

ARTHUR  H.  SMITH 

Chinese  Characteristics.  New  Edition,  Revised, 
with  additional  Illustrations.     Demy  8vo,  7s.  6d. 

Miss  E.  R.  SciDMORE  in  "  China  the  Long-Lived  Empire," 
says  :  "  Nothing  can  ever  displace  Dr  Smith's  '  Chinese 
Characteristics,'  the  keenest  and  most  appreciative  study  of  the 
Chinese  human  being  yet  made." 

Village  Life  in  China.  A  Study  in  Sociologj% 
New  Edition.  Demy  8vo,  art  binding,  with 
9  full-page  Illustrations,  7s.  6d. 

The  Athenautn  says:  "Gives  a  more  faithful  representa- 
tion of  village  life  in  China  than  any  that  has  ever  yet  been 
attempted." 

China  in  Convulsion  :  The  Origin  ;  The  Outbreak  ; 
The  Climax  ;  The  Aftermath.  The  survey  of 
the  cause  and  events  of  the  recent  uprising.  In 
2  Volumes,  demy  8vo,  cloth  extra,  with  numerous 
Illustrations,  Maps,  and  Charts,  21s. 

Mr  Frederick  Coleman  in  the  Daily  News  says:  "  Dr 
Smith  has  given  to  the  world  a  book  that  will  be  readily 
recognised  in  all  quarters  as  the  best  and  most  complete  work 
on  the  subject." 


OLIPHANT,  ANDERSON  &  FERRIER 
PUBLISHERS 


China  and  America 
To-day 

A  Study  of  Conditions 
and  Relations 


BY 
ARTHUR   H.   SMITH 

Thirty-Ave  Tears  a  Missionary  of  the  American 
Board  in  China 


Edinburgh  and  London 

Oliphant,  Anderson  ^  Ferrier 

1907 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cliinaamericatodaOOsmitiala 


All  Those  in  Evert  Land,  and 

Especially  in  America,  Who  Recognise  the  Actual 

AND  THE  Potential  Greatness  of  the  Chinese  People,  and 

THE  Duty  of  the  Most  Enlightened  Western 

Nations  to  Promote  their  Welfare, 

These  Pages  are  Inscribed 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

I.  The  Occident  and  the  Orient  ,:    ..,    *  13 

II,  The  New  America  ....     ,„    i..    .  19 

III.  Old  China 1.    :.     ..  28 

IV.  A  Great  Race  ,.,,.,.    i,,    ;,,  47 
y.  The  Brass  Dish  and  the  Iron  Brush  ,  80 

yi.  The  New  Far  East  and  the  New  China  108 

yil,  America's  Advantages  and  Disadvan- 
tages in  China   ..,,,,,  146 

Vm,  America's  Opportunities  and  Responsp- 

bilities  in  China    .     ,     .    ..     ♦,    ^  195 

IiTOEX     .,*...,.     t    >t  243 

Dates    of    Important    Events    in 

Modern  Chinese  History     i.,    ,.:  241 


DATES    OF    IMPORTANT    EVENTS    IN    MODERN 
CHINESE  HISTORY 

A.I)L 

I27S  Marco  Polo  Arrived  at  Court  of  Kublai  Khan. 

1516  Portuguese  Arrived  at  Canton. 

1575  Spanish  Arrived  at  Canton. 

1580  Father  Roger  and  Matthew  Ricci  Entered  Canton. 

1622  Dutch  Arrived  in  China. 

1637  English  Arrived  at  Canton. 

1660  Tea  First  Carried  to  England. 

1670  Beginning  of  Trade  with  the  East  India  Company. 

1719  Beginning  of  Commerce  with  Russia. 

1784  First  American  Merchant  Vessel  Left  New  York  for 
China. 

1793  Earl  Macartney  Received  by  the  Emperor. 

1816  Lord  Amherst's  unsuccessful  Embassy. 

1834  Opium  Dispute  Begins. 

1839  Beginning  of  War  with  Great  Britain. 

1842  Aug.  29,  Treaty  of  Peace  Signed  at  Nanking. 

1844  July  3,  First  Treaty  between  the  United  States  and 
China. 

1859  Nov.  24,  Commercial  Treaty  with  the  United  States. 

i860  Oct  13,  British  and  French  Capture  Peking. 

1864  T'ai  P'ing  Rebellion  Crushed. 

1868  Burlingame  Treaty  Signed. 

1870  June  21,  Tientsin  Massacre. 

1873  June  29,  Foreign  Ministers  Received  in  Audience  by 
the  Emperor. 

187s  Death  of  Emperor  T'ung  Chih  and  Accession  of  Pres- 
ent Emperor. 

1880  Nov.  17,  New  Treaty  with  the  United  States  Signed. 

1887  Feb.,  Assumption  of  Government  by  the  Emperor  Kuang 

Hsu. 

1888  American  Exclusion  Acts  against  Chinese  Passed- 

9 


10  IMPORTANT   DATES 

A,  D. 

189 1  Anti-Foreign  Riots  in  the  Yang-tzu  Valley. 

1894  War  with  Japan, 

1895  Treaty  of  Peace  with  Japan, 

1897  Nov.,  Seizure  of  Kiao  Chou  by  Germany. 

1898  Mar.,  Russia  Leases  Port  Arthur  of  China 

Reform  Edicts  by  the  Emperor, 
Counter  Edicts  by  the  Empress  Dowage*  end    De- 
thronement of  the  Emperor. 

1899  Rise  of  the  Boxer  Movement 

1900  June  17,  Capture  of  Taku  Forts  by  the  AlHea 

June  20,  Murder  of  the  German  Minister.    Siega  of  the 

the  Legations  in  Peking. 
Aug.  14,  Relief  of  the  Peking  Legations  by  tho  Allies. 
Aug,  15,  Flight  of  the  Court  to  Si  Ngan  Fu. 
Sept.  9,  Signing  of  the  Peace  Protocol 
1902  Jan.,  Return  of  the  Court  to  Peking. 

1904  Feb.  8,  Beginning  of  the  War  between  Japaa  and  Russfeu 

1905  Sept  5,  Treaty  of  Peace  between  Japan  and  Russia. 
Dec,  Despatch  of  Two  Imperial  Commissions  to  America 

and  Europe  to  Study  ConstitutioiuJ  Government 


FOREWORD 

Among  the  many  dramatic  events  at  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  and  the  opening  of  the  twentieth 
century,  whether  we  consider  the  number  of  the 
human  beings  affected  or  the  magnitude  and  variety 
of  the  interests  involved,  none  are  of  greater  impor- 
tance than  the  changes  in  the  Far  East 

The  usual  attitude  of  Americans  toward  world- 
phenomena  of  this  sort  has  been  that  of  more  or  less 
intelligent  indifference,  regarding  them — in  the 
phrase  of  a  British  writer  of  half-a-century  ago — as 
"ten-thousand  miles  offy,"  and  therefore  of  no 
moment  to  us. 

By  the  events  of  the  last  decade  this  way  of  think- 
ing has  been  shown  to  be  not  merely  unphilosoph- 
ical,  but  irrational.  Geographically,  politically,  com- 
mercially, and  morally,  the  countries  and  the  peoples 
of  the  earth  are  more  and  more  felt  to  be  inter- 
related by  what  Cicero  called  "  a  common  bond,"  not 
in  theory  only,  but  in  solid  and  indisputable  fact. 
The  number  by  whom  this  old  truth,  newly  appre- 
ciated, is  distinctly  apprehended  is,  however,  not 
large.  Those  who  are  willing  to  take  trouble  and 
to  make  sacrifices  in  order  to  compel  others  to  ap- 
prehend it  are  even  fewer;  yet  nothing  is  more  cer- 

zz 


12  FOREWORD 

tain  than  that  the  welfare  of  the  Commonwealth 
depends,  as  it  always  has  depended,  upon  the  insight 
and  the  outlook  of  the  few.  The  following  chapters, 
prepared  in  deference  to  the  request  of  many  friends, 
contain  little  which  has  not  in  some  form  been  said 
by  others;  but  timely  truths  nowhere  require  more 
varied  iteration  than  in  busy  America,  where  there  is 
an  unconscious  consciousness  of  a  destiny  for  which 
there  is  but  slight  provision,  and  of  which  there  is  as 
yet  a  very  inadequate  comprehension. 

All  that  is  intended  in  these  pages  is  merely  an  out- 
line sketch,  in  charcoal,  of  the  general  relations  be- 
tween America  and  Chhia. 

The  Author. 

Shanghai,  China. 


;...«.•.., 


THE  OCCIDENT  AND  THE  ORIENT 

The  author  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  Ori- 
ental poems  assumes  the  interval  between  the  East 
and  the  West  as  a  standard  of  immeasurable  dis- 
tance. The  observant  traveller  who  crosses  from 
Europe  to  the  Syrian  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
recognises  at  once  that  he  is  now  in  another  world. 
It  is  not  mere  differences  of  language  or  of  race,  for 
those  are  found  everywhere ;  but  there  is  a  pervasive 
barrier,  felt,  but  unseen,  which  divides,  and  for  aught 
that  we  can  see  always  will  divide,  the  Occident  from 
the  Orient.  All  this  and  much  more  is  condensed 
into  the  five  letters,  which,  to  our  thought,  represent 
the  greatest  of  all  the  continents — Asia.  It  is  the 
land  of  origins.  The  human  race  must  have  come 
from  somewhere,  and  whether  we  locate  that  some- 
where in  some  valley  to  the  north,  or  upon  some 
plain  to  the  south,  we  cannot  persuade  ourselves  that 
our  most  distant  ancestors  were  not  Asiatics. 

It  is  a  realm  of  antiquities,  the  might  and  in- 
exhaustible ruins  of  which  have  as  yet  been  only 
superficially  explored,  of  magnitude  in  space,  of  in- 
definite duration  in  time.  It  is  the  land  in  which  all 
the  religions  of  mankind  have  originated,  and  from 
which  by  widely  different  processes  they  have  been 

13 


14       CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

spread  over  the  earth.  It  is  the  land  where  fatalism 
reigns,  where  the  sins  committed  in  one  state  of 
existence  are  slowly  and  toilfully  expiated  by  succes- 
sive reincarnations  during  successive  kalpas,  or 
myriad-year  periods.  In  our  cold  Western  world 
we  hold  and  we  teach  a  doctrine  of  logical  contra- 
dictions. A  thing  exists  or  it  does  not  exist — one  or 
the  other,  certainly  not  both  at  once ;  or  in  the  formal 
statement  of  the  people  that  talk  about  "  logic,"  "  A 
and  not-A  divide  the  universe."  There  is  no,  and 
there  can  be  no,  middle  ground. 

All  this  is  in  Asia  sublimated  nonsense.  Every 
Chinese  "  believes  "  in  three  mutually  contradictory 
religions  at  one  and  the  same  time,  and  with  no 
sense  of  logical  (or  illogical)  inconvenience.  "  A 
Hindoo  will  state  with  perfect  honesty  that  Chris- 
tianity is  true,  that  Mohammedanism  is  true,  and 
that  his  own  special  variety  of  Brahminism  is  true, 
and  that  he  believes  them  all  implicitly."  "A 
Hindoo  astronomer  who  predicts  eclipses  ten  years 
ahead  without  a  blunder,  believes  all  the  while,  and 
sincerely  believes,  that  the  eclipse  is  caused  by  some 
supernatural  dog  swallowing  the  moon,  and  will  beat 
a  drum  to  make  the  dog  give  up  his  prize."  A 
similar  phenomenon  is  witnessed  in  China,  where, 
in  accordance  with  orders  published  in  "  The  Peking 
Gazette,"  the  crew  of  a  foreign-built  man-of-war, 
armed  with  Krupp  guns,  turn  out  with  drums,  iron- 
pans,  and  any  implement  which  will  make  a  din,  to 
"  save  the  moon."     At  some  future,  and  let  us  hope 


THE    OCCIDENT    AND    THE    ORIENT        15 

not  too  distant,  time,  there  may  arise  a  philosophical 
observer  able  to  combine  into  one  harmonious  whole 
the  race-traits  which  in  a  lesser  or  in  a  greater  degree 
characterise  the  Turk  and  the  Arab,  the  Persian  and 
the  polyglot  inhabitants  of  the  Indian  peninsula,  the 
Siamese,  the  Japanese,  the  Korean,  the  Chinese,  and 
the  Tartar.  When  that  happy  day  arrives,  we  shall 
be  able  to  co-ordinate  those  isolated  bones,  of  which 
we  are  now  in  but  partial  possession,  into  a  complete 
skeleton  which  shall  be  styled  "  Asiatic  Character- 
istics." The  disregard  of  time,  of  accuracy,  of  what 
we  mean  by  comfort,  indifference  to  suffering  in 
others,  a  self-seclusion  which  makes  it  forever  im- 
possible for  the  Occidental  to  comprehend  the  real 
inner  thought  of  the  Oriental,  the  passion  for  the 
theatrical  and  for  the  spectacular  (with  a  general 
flavour  of  the  "  Arabian  Nights  "),  the  all-pervading 
doctrine  of  family,  clan,  corporate  responsibility,  the 
definite  merging  (or  rather  submerging)  of  the  in- 
dividual in  the  mass — 'all  these  will  be  seen  to  be 
only  variant  manifestations  of  a  common  heredity, 
education,  environment.  "  Oriental,"  in  the  phrase- 
ology of  Dr.  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  "  signifies  that  type 
of  civilisation  which  does  not  recognise  the  value  or 
the  rights  of  the  individual  person  as  such.  It 
represents  autocratic  absolutism  in  government;  it 
emphasises  the  rights  of  the  superior  and  the  duties 
of  the  inferior;  it  ranks  men  as  inherently  superior 
to  women.  It  has  no  place  for  popular  education  or 
for  representative  government,  and  it  esteems  mili- 


i6       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

tary  virtue  as  the  highest  type  known.  In  other 
words,  in  Oriental  civilisation  the  community  is 
supreme,  the  individual  of  no  value  whatever  in 
himself.'*  The  unchanged  and  the  unchanging  East 
is  best  typified  by  the  Arabs  of  the  desert,  of  whom 
Mr.  Meredith  Townsend,  in  his  illuminating  essays 
on  "  Asia  and  Europe,"  has  something  to  say,  and 
from  whom  we  may  quote  a  few  paragraphs. 

"  There  is  no  puzzle  in  the  world,  either  to  the 
ethnologist  or  the  psychologist,  quite  equal  to  the 
Arab,  whether  he  dwells  in  a  tent,  half-nomad,  half- 
robber,  or  abides  in  the  city  of  Nejd  or  South 
Arabia,  the  oldest,  most  tranquil  and  proudest  of 
republicans.  Why  is  he,  of  all  men  in  the  world, 
the  one  who  changes  so  little,  that  the  person  who, 
of  all  mankind,  most  resembles  Sheikh  Abraham  in 
ways  and  habits  and  bearing,  and,  as  the  best  ob- 
servers say,  in  habit  of  thought,  is  his  collateral  kins- 
man, ninety  generations  removed,  a  sheikh  of  Syria 
or  Nejd?  What  induces  the  Arab  to  seclude  him- 
self in  a  dreary  peninsula,  in  poverty  such  as  no 
European  conceives,  and  there  live  a  life  of  remote 
antiquity;  a  life  without  object,  or  hope,  or  fear;  a 
life  so  persistent  that,  a  thousand  years  hence,  if 
Europe  does  not  conquer  him,  the  Arab  will  be  as 
to-day?  .  .  .  No  one  who  knows  the  Arab  doubts 
his  enterprise,  and  yet  he  lives  on  unchanged  in  the 
Syrian  desert,  or  in  his  vast,  secluded  peninsula — 
Arabia  is  as  large  as  India,  or  Europe  west  of  the 
Vistula — seeking  no  advance,  complaining  of  no 


THE    OCCIDENT    AND   THE    ORIENT        17 

suffering,  living  his  life,  such  as  it  is,  straight  on, 
and  accepting  death  as  a  destiny  neither  to  be  sought 
nor  to  be  feared  and  fled  from.  As  it  was,  is  now, 
and  ever  shall  be,  world  without  end — that  is  his 
conception  of  human  life.  Time  is  nothing  to  the 
Arab;  progress  has  no  attraction  for  his  mind; 
wealth,  though  when  abroad  he  seeks  it  zealously, 
has  no  charm  to  tempt  him  thither.  Poverty  is  noth- 
ing to  him,  for  the  man  who  is  contented  with  his 
skin  can  never  be  poor.  .  .  .  They  despise  industry, 
put  wealth  by  as  meaningless,  keep  the  tradition  of 
the  past  as  a  possession,  and  without  decay  as  with- 
out progress,  live  on  forever,  as  they  were  in  ages  of 
which  history  tells  us  nothing.  .  .  .  Imagine  a  clan 
which  prefers  sand  to  mould,  poverty  to  labour, 
solitary  reflection  to  the  busy  hubbub  of  the  mart, 
which  will  not  earn  enough  to  clothe  itself,  never  in- 
vented so  much  as  a  lucifer  match,  and  would  con- 
sider newspaper-reading  a  disgraceful  waste  of  time. 
Is  it  not  horrible  that  such  a  race  should  be? — 
more  horrible,  that  it  should  survive  all  others? — 
most  horrible  of  all,  flhat  it  should  produce,  among 
other  trifles,  the  Psalms  and  the  Gospels,  the  Koran, 
and  the  epic  of  Antar  ?  " 

From  the  Occidental  point  of  view.  Immobility, 
Incomprehensibility,  and  general  Irrationality — 
these  too  frequently  compose  the  little  that  we  think 
we  know  of  the  Orient.  But  as  thera  is  a  sense  in 
which  the  Occident  is  a  whole,  so  likewise  is  the 
Orient    We  are  to-day  confronted  with  the  indis- 


1 8       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

putable  fact  that  parts  of  the  Orient  are  undergoing 
greater  changes,  and,  even  as  we  reckon  progress, 
are  making  more  progress,  than  any  other  part  of 
the  world.  To  call  the  reader's  attention  to  some 
of  the  concomitants  of  these  new  conditions  is  the 
purpose  of  the  ensuing  chapters. 


THE   NEW   AMERICA 

There  is  a  deep  significance  in  those  maps  which 
are  so  drawn  as  to  show  the  gradual,  intermittent, 
but  steady  process  by  which  the  territory  of  the 
United  States  came  to  be  increased.  If  ever  an 
American  statesman  was  committed  against  extra- 
constitutional  acts,  that  man  was  Thomas  Jefferson. 
The  Constitution  made  no  provision  for  the  purchase 
of  alien  territory,  therefore,  according  to  the  strict- 
constructionist  Democrats  of  that  day,  no  such  pur- 
chase could  constitutionally  be  made. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  right  to  navigate  freely  the 
Mississippi  river  was  of  vital  importance  to  all  set- 
tlers in  the  valley  of  that  great  artery  and  its  trib- 
utaries, a  right  for  which,  if  necessary,  they  would 
have  been  prepared  to  fight.  At  a  "  psychologic 
moment,"  "  Napoleon  seized  the  opportunity  to  do 
England  a  bad  turn  by  increasing  the  power  of  her 
revolted  colonies.  Whatever  the  actual  circum- 
stances, however,  it  is  a  notable  fact  that  the  Fed- 
eral Government  without  hesitation  shouldered  the 
responsibility  of  this  huge  acquisition  of  territory, 
with  its  tiny  population  of  50,000  whites,  and  the 
same  number  of  black  and  colored  people,  although 
there  was  considerable  opposition  in  the  Northern 
States." 

19 


20       CHINA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY 

However  great  was  the  gratification  felt  at  the 
outcome,  no  one  living  an  hundred  years  ago  could 
possibly  have  entertained  any  adequate  conception 
of  the  ultimate  importance  of  this  event,  the  cen- 
tennial anniversary  of  which  was  celebrated  by  a 
great  industrial  and  commercial  Exposition. 

The  history  of  Florida,  the  next  acquisition,  was 
remarkable,  for  it  had  been  colonised  by  Spain,  and 
in  1763  was  ceded  to  Great  Britain  in  return  for 
Cuba  and  the  Philippine  Islands.  Twenty  years 
later,  Great  Britain  restored  Florida  to  Spain,  most 
of  the  English  leaving  the  country,  and  until  1819 
it  remained  a  Spanish  colony.  It  was  then  pur- 
chased by  the  United  States,  to  be  used  seventy-nine 
years  afterwards  as  the  base  from  which  those  mil- 
itary and  naval  operations  were  conducted  which  in 
a  brief  period  drove  the  Spaniard  out  of  that  New 
World  which  he  helped  to  discover,  and  where  for 
four  centuries  he  had  misused  his  power. 

Our  unwarranted  aggression  upon  helpless  Mex- 
ico, with  the  ensuing  treaties,  carried  our  boun- 
daries from  the  Rio  Grande  to  the  Columbia,  and 
by  the  settlement  of  the  long-standing  dispute  with 
Great  Britain  the  Canadian  frontier  was  permanently 
adjusted. 

The  next  step  in  expansion,  less  than  two  decades 
later,  was  to  many  Americans  both  a  surprise  and 
a  puzzle.  It  was  apparently  taken  through  the  skill 
and  persistence  of  two  men,  Charles  Sumner  and 
William  H.  Seward,  the  latter  one  of  the  most 


THE    NEW    AMERICA  21 

prescient  of  statesmen  that  America  has  ever  pro- 
duced. The  vast  territory  of  Alaska  became  ours 
because  Russia,  for  reasons  not  difficult  to  surmise, 
was  anxious  to  sell  and  we  were  willing  to  buy. 
The  transcendent  importance  of  the  transfer  only 
became  obvious  to  every  one  when  during  the  Span- 
ish war  the  United  States  took  over  Spanish  rights 
in  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  the  island  of  Guam, 
and  annexed  the  Hawaiian  group. 

"  When  these  circumstances  are  taken  into  consid- 
eration," remarks  Mr.  Colquhoun,  "  it  becomes  the 
more  remarkable  that  from  the  first  the  United 
States  has  never  hesitated  on  her  path  of  expansion. 
At  the  same  time,  the  policy  was  not  commended 
by  any  of  her  great  statesmen."  And  again :  "  One 
cannot  fail  to  pause  and  review  the  circumstances  in 
which  that  unparalleled  development  took  place,  and 
one  is  immediately  struck  by  the  steady  continuity 
of  purpose  which  seems  half-unconsciously  to  have 
dominated  the  people  and  their  rulers.  In  pros- 
perity and  adversity,  in  defence  of  slavery  and  in 
spite  of  it,  by  the  Federalists  and  by  the  Democrats, 
the  work  went  steadily  on.  .  .  .  In  short,  the 
career  of  the  United  States  has  been  from  the  first 
one  of  masterful,  irresistible  expansion,  not  for  lack 
of  space  or  opportunity  at  home,  but  because  of 
sheer  force,  initiative  and  nervous  energy — charac- 
teristics which  are  peculiarly  strong  in  the  race  which 
the  North  American  continent  has  developed  from 
many  stocks." 


22       CHINA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY, 

Nothing,  indeed,  in  the  early  history  of  the  coun- 
try is  more  remarkable  than  the  variety  of  strains 
blended  into  a  new  whole,  English,  Spanish,  French, 
Dutch,  Swedish.  Though  it  required  four  centu- 
ries to  eliminate  the  Spaniard,  it  was  accomplished 
at  last.  The  dislodgment  of  the  French  was  even 
more  significant,  for  our  American  wars  between 
French  and  English  were  but  isolated  moves  in  a 
wide  and  complicated  game  extending  around  the 
globe,  from  the  continental  peninsula  of  India  to 
the  Heights  of  Abraham  on  the  St.  Lawrence.  As 
a  result  of  these  conflicts  some  brass  plates  buried 
at  the  junction  of  important  rivers  (many  of  them 
discovered  by  Frenchmen)  certifying  that  all  lands 
drained  by  these  streams  were  the  property  of  His 
Serene  Highness,  Louis  IV.,  a  few  proper  names  of 
Gallic  origin  in  North  America  and  the  little  settle- 
ment of  Pondicherri  on  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  were 
practically  all  that  remained  to  register  the  evapora- 
tion of  what  was  intended  to  become  a  mighty 
French  world-empire. 

As  by  the  war  between  the  States  America  may 
be  said  to  have  gradually  come  to  a  real  self-con- 
sciousness, so  by  the  Spanish  war  we  have  come  at 
last  to  a  world-consciousness.  In  each  case,  as  in 
every  great  conflict,  the  results  were  far  wider  than 
could  at  the  outset  have  been  foreseen  by  the  wis- 
est. Nine  fateful  years  have  passed  since  the  Span- 
ish war,  and  for  good  or  for  ill,  to  the  great  disquiet 
of  some  of  her  children  as  well  as  to  that  of  some 


THE   NEW   AMERICA  23 

of  her  neighbours,  America  is  an  actual  as  distin- 
guished from  a  potential  world-power,  with  a  very 
imperfect  apprehension  of  what  the  new  relations 
imply  and  of  what  they  may  involve.  The  Monroe 
Doctrine  admits  of  many  interpretations,  to  none 
of  which  has  the  world  at  large  given  its  assent ;  but 
whether  it  be  regarded  as  a  warning  to  others  not 
to  interfere  upon  the  Western  Continent,  or  as  a 
conditional  promise  that  America  will  undertake  to 
render  such  interference  unnecessary,  the  responsi- 
bility is  serious. 

The  Panama  Canal  brings  us  into  new  relations 
with  the  Caribbean  Sea,  some  of  the  ports  of  which 
in  the  control  of  other  nations  might  in  the  case 
of  war,  as  Capt.  Mahan  reminds  us,  become  of  vast 
strategic  importance.  The  completion  of  this  great 
waterway  will  make  America  a  first-class  Pacific 
Power. 

"  As  far  back  as  1869  money  was  voted  for  estab- 
lishing a  naval  station  and  harbour  on  Midway 
Island,  and  though  the  project  was  abandoned  the 
island  was  retained."  The  Samoan  harbour  of 
Pango  Pango,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  Pacific,  al- 
though not  actively  occupied  until  after  the  Spanish 
war,  was  ceded  to  the  United  States  in  1872,  and 
may  become  of  great  importance. 

Most  instructive  is  the  history  of  our  relations 
with  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  More  than  sixty  years 
ago,  Daniel  Webster,  then  Secretary  of  State,  de- 
clared that  no  other  power  would  be  suffered  to  hold 


24       CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

this  group,  which,  on  the  other  hand,  the  United 
States  did  not  want  and  would  not  take.  Through 
their  Christianisation  by  American  missionaries 
their  ties  with  that  country  were  strong,  and  as 
soon  as  the  sugar  and  other  industries  were  devel- 
oped they  became  commercially  and  economically 
dependent  upon  America.  The  spectacular  monar- 
chy ran  its  course,  followed  by  a  short-lived  repub- 
lic ;  but  it  had  long  been  evident  that  formal  annex- 
ation by  the  United  States  was  only  a  question  of 
development. 

These  islands  are  important  as  a  strategic  base 
and  as  a  unique  centre  of  influence  in  the  broad 
Pacific.  In  one  of  his  luminous  magazine  articles, 
published  five  years  before  the  Spanish  war,  Capt. 
Mahan  wrote :  "  Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid 
upon  the  immense  disadvantage  to  us  of  any  mari- 
time enemy  Having  a  coaling  station  well  within 
2,500  miles  of  every  point  on  our  coast  line  from 
Puget  Sound  to  Mexico.  Were  there  many  others 
available  we  might  find  it  difficult  to  exclude  from 
all.  There  is,  however,  but  the  one.  Shut  out 
from  the  Sandwich  (Hawaiian)  Islands  as  a  coal- 
base,  an  enemy  is  thrown  back  for  supplies  of  fuel 
to  d*^tances  of  3,500  or  4,000  miles — or  between 
7,000  and  8,000  going  and  coming — an  impediment 
to  sustained  maritime  operations  well-nigh  prohib- 
itive. It  is  rarely  that  so  important  a  factor  in  the 
attack  or  defence  of  a  coast-line — of  a  sea  frontier — 
is  c«uicentrated  in  a  single  position,  and  the  circum- 


/ 


THE    NEW   AMERICA  25 

stance  renders  it  doubly  imperative  upon  us  to  secure 
it  if  we  righteously  can."  What  influence  these  wise 
words  exerted  it  may  not  be  easy  to  say,  but  it  is 
certain  that  when  the  little  Hawaiian  republic 
knocked  for  admission,  the  sober  sense  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  recognised  that  to  grant  it  was  at  once  a 
duty  and  a  privilege,  the  advantages  of  which  were 
reciprocal.  The  Hawaiian  Islands  are  not  only  the 
Key  of  the  Pacific,  but  the  Cross-roads  of  the  Pacific 
as  well. 

As  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  observes,  they  are  "  mid- 
way between  Unalaska  and  the  Society  Islands,  mid- 
way between  Sitka  and  Samoa,  midway  between 
Port  Townsend  and  the  Fiji  Islands,  midway  be- 
tween San  Francisco  and  the  Carolines,  midway  be- 
tween the  Panama  Canal  and  Hongkong,  and  on 
the  direct  route  from  South  American  ports  to  Ja- 
pan." The  following  table  of  distances  is  only 
approximately  correct,  since  different  charts  are 
marked  with  different  figures,  but  it  exhibits  the 
unique  situation  of  Honolulu: 

MILES 

Honolulu  to  San  Francisco 2,100 

Honolulu  to  San  Diego 2,260 

Honolulu  to  Portland,  Oregon 2460 

Honolulu  to  Sitka 2,395 

Honolulu  to  Unalaska. . . » 2,018 

Honolulu  to  Vancouver 2,330 

Honolulu  to  Acapulco 3,310 

Honolulu  to  Nicaragua 4,210 

Honolulu  to  Callao 5,240 

Honolulu  to  Valparaiso 5,9i6 

Honolulu  to  Auckland 3,850 


26       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

MILES 

Honolulu  to  Sydney 4,480 

Honolulu  to  Yokohama 3,400 

Honolulu  to  Hongkong 4,893 

Honolulu  to  Manila 4,700 

Honolulu  to  Guam 3,5oo 

Honolulu  to  Samoa 2,290 

Honolulu  to  Tahiti 2,380 

Honolulu  to  Fiji  Islands 2,735 

With  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  the  posi- 
tion of  Honolulu  in  the  track  of  the  world's  com- 
merce will  be  seen  to  be  of  decisive  importance, 
"  because  it  will  lie  in  the  path  of  an  increasing  file 
of  vessels  moving  from  Panama  to  China,  Japan,  or 
Asiatic  Russia."  Dr.  Strong  quotes  the  Hon.  L.  A. 
Thurston  as  follows :  "  In  the  whole  Pacific  Ocean, 
from  the  equator  on  the  south  to  Alaska  on  the 
north,  from  the  coast  of  China  and  Japan  on  the 
west  to  the  American  continent  on  the  east,  there  is 
but  one  spot  where  a  ton  of  coal,  a  pound  of  bread, 
or  a  gallon  of  water  can  be  obtained  by  a  passing 
vessel,  and  that  spot  is  Hawaii."  By  the  acquisition 
of  the  Philippine  Islands  the  United  States  is 
brought  within  two  days'  easy  steaming  of  China. 
Manila  is  but  a  little  more  than  600  miles  from 
Hongkong,  which  is  only  eighty  miles  from  Can- 
ton— ^perhaps  the  largest  aggregation  of  population 
in  the  Chinese  empire.  America  thus  becomes  de 
facto  an  Asiatic  power.  The  completion  of  an  all- 
American  cable  across  the  Pacific  brings  Washing- 
ton within  a  few  minutes  of  Manila,  while  branch 
lines  to  China  and  Japan  complete  the  circuit. 


THE    NEW   AMERICA  27 

The  tropical  archipelago  which  now  constitutes 
the  American  outpost  at  the  door  of  the  Far  East 
may  be,  in  an  important  sense,  a  test  of  our  national 
capacity,  and  it  may  easily  become — what  some  al- 
ready consider  it — a  Pandora  box  of  evils.  In  what 
spirit  and  with  what  success  we  are  to  administer 
our  newly-acquired  island  possessions,  and  in  what 
manner  we  are  to  deport  ourselves  in  presence  of  the 
Oriental  peoples  with  whom  we  are  now  brought  into 
contact,  are  vital  questions  for  the  New  America. 


in 

OLD    CHINA 

An  inherent  difficulty  in  the  forming  of  any  ade- 
quate conception  of  China  by  a  Westerner  is  that  he 
is  almost  certain  to  regard  it  as  a  mysterious  entity 
which,  Minerva-like,  sprang  into  being  at  one  place 
and  at  one  time.  The  truth  is,  however,  that  what- 
ever may  have  been  their  origin,  the  Chinese  are 
no  exception  to  the  universal  law  of  human  evolu- 
tion. Their  history  differs  from  that  of  other  peo- 
ples with  which  Occidentals  are  familiar  in  the 
co-operation  of  five  factors  nowhere  else  to  be  found 
in  combination:  namely,  comparative  isolation;  ex- 
tended duration ;  extremely  gradual  progression ;  su- 
periority to  environment,  and  the  overwhelming 
influence  of  resident  forces  as  compared  with  the 
relatively  unimportant  effect  of  those  from  without. 

The  Chinese  are  at  once  the  oldest,  the  most  nu- 
merous, and  the  most  homogeneous  people  exist- 
ing upon  the  earth.  Their  history  begins  with  a 
mythical  period  not  unlike  those  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  passing  which  we  come  to  what  Occidentals 
term  the  legendary  period,  whose  opening  is  almost 
thirty  centuries  b.  c.  This  is  the  age  of  the  Five 
Rulers,  who  were  "  much  more  lik-e  great  tribal 

a8 


OLD    CHINA  29 

chieftains  than  kings  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 
Each  of  these  five  is  said  to  have  ruled  for  a  long 
period  of  time  and  to  have  done  much  for  the  civil- 
isation of  the  people."  The  first  of  these  was  Fu 
Hsi,  who  is  reputed  to  have  lived  not  later  than  b.  c. 
2852,  and  perhaps  several  centuries  earlier.  He  es- 
tablished marriage,  introduced  by  means  of  certain 
characters  a  notation  of  time,  regulated  the  seasons, 
invented  the  six  styles  of  writing,  and  instructed  the 
people  in  the  arts  of  hunting,  fishing,  and  pasturing. 
"  Much  is  attributed  to  him  which  was  undoubtedly 
of  later  origin,  as,  for  instance,  the  highly  compli- 
cated system  of  Chinese  written  characters.  Prob- 
ably at  this  date  the  Chinese  possessed  nothing 
except  rude  hieroglyphics,  and  the  method  of  writ- 
ing used  at  the  present  time  is  the  product  of  the 
slow  development  of  ages."  ^ 

A  successor  of  Fu  Hsi  was  Shen  Nung  (b.  c. 
2737),  who  taught  the  people  the  art  of  agriculture, 
and  the  use  of  herbs  as  a  medicine.  A  later  ruler 
is  supposed  to  have  invented  the  60  year  cycles, 
while  his  wife  taught  the  rearing  of  silk  worms  and 
the  making  of  silk  clothing. 

Two  famous  members  of  this  glorious  quintette 
(although  there  were  nine  in  all)  were  Yao  (b.  c. 
2356)  and  Shun  (b.  c.  2286),  who  have  been  ideal- 
ised as  such  perfect  rulers  that,  as  any  coolie  may 

1  The  foregoing  quotations,  and  some  which  follow,  are  from 
the  best  epitome  of  Chinese  history,  by  Rev.  F.  L.  Hawks 
Pott,  D.  D.,  President  of  St.  John's  College,  Shanghai,  "  A 
Sketch  of  Chinese  History."    1903, 


go       CfflNA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY. 

tell  you,  in  their  time  doors  were  not  shut  at  night, 
nor  lost  articles  picked  up  by  any  save  the  real 
owner. 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  intellec- 
tual civilisation  of  China  is  the  universal  habit  of 
turning  a  considerable  part  of  the  national  literature 
out  of  doors  before  every  New  Year,  at  which  time 
antithetical  couplets,  composed  with  great  literary 
skill,  are  pasted  on  the  posts  of  houses  or  gates, 
window  frames,  and  the  like,  there  to  remain 
throughout  the  year  until  replaced  by  fresh  ones. 
References  to  the  Classics,  with  poetic  and  historic 
allusions,  abound.  One  of  the  couplets  everywhere 
to  be  met  with  tersely  glorifies  the  two  worthies  just 
named,  together  with  the  great  Yii,  who  founded 
(2205  B.  c.)  the  Hsia  dynasty,  and  Wen  Wang,  a 
famous  Duke,  whose  period  was  about  1 140  b.  c. 

"The  Day  of  Yao;  The  Time  of  Shun; 
The  Rule  of  Yii;  The  Style  of  Wen." 

To  no  people  in  the  world  have  past  ages  and  dead 
men  ever  been  more  of  a  "  live  issue  "  than  to  the 
Chinese,  without  a  perception  of  which  fact  it  is  im- 
possible to  comprehend  them  or  their  history. 

Like  all  other  countries,  China  had  inhabitants 
who  arrived  long  before  the  "  first  settlers,"  and  with 
them  the  Chinese  waged  warfare,  gradually  driving 
them  back,  but  without  exterminating  them.  Many 
of  these  tribes  whom  the  Chinese  have  not  been  able 


OLD    CHINA  31 

to  subdue  are  still  to  be  found  in  the  mountainous 
parts  of  southern  China.  When  the  rude  maps  of 
the  empire  at  the  different  stages  of  its  slow  growth 
are  examined,  its  historic  evolution  during  the  last 
3,000  years  becomes,  by  a  similar  representation,  as 
clear  as  that  of  the  United  States  since  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution.  The  first  territory  occupied 
by  the  Chinese  was  in  the  northwest,  along  the  Yel- 
low River,  and  formed  but  a  fraction  of  what  is  now 
China  proper.  By  an  expansion  as  normal  as  that 
in  America,  although  so  deliberate,  the  Empire  has 
been  pushed  onward  and  outward  until  at  certain 
periods  it  has  been  coextensive  with  the  greater  part 
of  the  continent  of  Asia,  stretching  from  India  on 
the  one  hand  to  Persia  on  the  other.  The  earliest 
rulers  were  Patriarchs,  developed  by  their  struggles 
with  their  neighbours  into  Military  Chieftains. 

From  a  Western  point  of  view,  the  history  of 
China  is  divided  into  two  well-marked  periods,  of 
which  the  first,  the  Legendary,  began  about  2500 
years  b.  c,  extending  to  the  Ch'in  dynasty  (b.  c. 
221-209).  Among  the  different  feudal  States  into 
which  China  was  then  divided,  that  of  Ch'in  was  sit- 
uated on  the  western  frontier,  where  its  rulers  might 
naturally  be  expected  to  become  adepts  in  warfare, 
as  compared  with  the  more  peaceful  States  remote 
from  the  stormy  borders.  It  is  from  the  name  of 
this  division  of  the  Empire  that  the  word  China  is 
supposed  to  have  had  its  origin,  a  word,  it  should 
be  observed,  which  the  Chinese  have  never  employed, 


32       CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

and  which  they  are  now  introducing  from  the  West 
through  Japan,  in  the  form  of  Chih-na. 

One  of  the  Ch'in  rulers,  who,  by  the  way,  entered 
upon  his  labours  at  the  early  age  of  thirteen,  recog- 
nising the  weakness  of  the  divided  state  of  China, 
determined  to  unite  it.  After  bringing  all  the  States 
into  submission  he  organised  the  country  into  prov- 
inces, over  which  officers  were  appointed,  responsible 
to  himself,  a  system  which  has  practically  been  fol- 
lowed down  to  the  present  time.  To  guard  against 
the  ever-threatening  Tartars,  this  Emperor  built 
(and  in  part  repaired)  the  "  Great  Wall,"  by  far 
the  most  impressive  of  the  tangible  memorials  of 
China's  past,  a  gigantic  undertaking,  usually  reck- 
oned at  fifteen  hundred  miles  in  length.  It  was 
completed  (b.  c.  204)  in  ten  years'  time,  "  at  a  vast 
expense  of  men  and  material,  and  not  until  the 
family  of  the  builder  had  been  destroyed." 

This  "  statesman  of  puissant  ener^  and  strongly 
marked  individuality,"  who  has  been  called  the  Na- 
poleon of  China,  was  the  real  founder  of  the  Em- 
pire as  we  know  it.  He  took  the  ambitious  name 
of  The  First  Emperor,  Ch'in  Shih  Huang,  that  his- 
tory might  be  begun  from  him ;  and  to  facilitate  this 
end,  as  well  as  to  dim  the  memory  of  the  past  which 
he  was  resolved  to  abandon,  he  despotically  ordered 
the  destruction  of  nearly  the  whole  of  the  existing 
literature.  The  scholars  of  the  time  naturally  re- 
sented and  criticised  this  wholesale  vandalism,  and 
offered  a  keen  and  a  persistent  opposition.    Upon 


OLD    CHINA  33 

this  he  ordered  460  of  them  to  be  buried  alive  "  for 
the  encouragement  of  the  others  " !  The  survivors 
concealed  as  many  as  possible  of  the  priceless 
treasures  of  antiquity,  and  from  the  tablets  of  their 
memories — "  wax  to  receive  but  marble  to  retain  " 
— they  were  subsequently  able  to  reproduce  the 
greater  part.  China  is  perhaps  the  only  country  in 
which  so  overwhelming  a  calamity  could  have  been 
followed  by  effects  so  relatively  slight. 

This  period  of  Chinese  history  is  from  every 
point  of  view  of  capital  importance.  It  contains  the 
only  revolution  in  the  long  experience  of  the  Chi- 
nese race,  although  they  have  passed  through  re- 
bellions literally  innumerable.  Ch'in  Shih  Huang 
was  a  reformer  who  appeared  at  a  crisis.  But  in 
order  to  accomplish  his  nationalistic  and  egoistic  pur- 
pose he  was  ready  to  make  an  abrupt  and  a  final 
break  with  the  past. 

But  a  fundamental  characteristic  of  Chinese  civil- 
isation is  a  refusal  to  break  with  the  past:  continu- 
ity is  its  life.  The  Chinese  Muse  of  History  is  as 
inexorable  as  Fate — ^it  is,  indeed,  but  another  name 
for  Fate,  and  by  that  Muse  and  in  that  history 
Ch'in  Shih  Huang,  the  unifier  of  China  and  one  of 
its  ablest  spirits,  is  adjudged  a  monster  of  wicked- 
ness and  a  warning  to  an  hundred  generations.  The 
dynasty  of  Ch'in  lasted  but  forty-nine  years,  but  some 
of  its  effects  were  permanent.  The  Empire  was  put 
in  condition  to  present  a  determined  front  to  the  in- 
cursions of  the  barbarous  tribes  to  the  north. 


34       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

The  Han,  which  soon  followed,  is  considered  the 
first  national  dynasty.  The  former,  or  Western 
Han,  lasted  231  years,  and  the  later,  or  Eastern 
han,  lasted  196  years  longer.  "  The  wild  tribes 
disturbing  the  peace  of  the  Empire  at  this  time  were 
probably  of  the  same  stock  as  the  Huns  and  Turks, 
who  afterwards  made  inroads  into  Europe,  the  Huns 
becoming  the  great  scourge  of  Europe  under  the 
leadership  of  Attila  (a.  d.  445)."  The  warfare  of 
China  with  the  Tartars  of  the  north,  under  widely 
varying  conditions,  the  details  of  which  are  irrele- 
vant to  our  purpose,  went  on  unintermittently  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Han  dynasty  (b.  c.  206)  for 
more  than  fourteen  hundred  years,  until  in  1644  the 
present  dynasty  of  Manchu  Tartars  seized  the  throne 
which  they  have  ever  since  held.  An  interesting 
and  an  instructive  historic  parallel  might  be  drawn 
between  the  barbarian  inundation  of  Rome,  and  the 
invasion  of  China  by  her  barbarian  enemies,  with 
the  advantage  distinctly  in  favour  of  China. 

It  was  said  that  Greece,  being  conquered,  con- 
quered her  conquerors,  although  in  the  process  she 
lost  her  identity.  Of  China  it  may  even  more  truly 
be  affirmed  that  being  constantly  overrun,  large 
parts  of  her  territory  being  lost,  and  twice  con^ 
quered  by  alien  tribes,  she  not  only  conquered  her 
conquerors,  but  compelled  them  to  give  up  their  own 
identity  and  fuse  themselves  with  China.  In  the 
light  of  what  has  been  said,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
a  partial  table  of  Chinese  dynasties  may  suggest — 


OLD   CHINA  35 

for  it  can  do  no  more — to  the  discerning  reader 
something  of  the  greatness  of  a  people  who  have 
occupied  their  territory  continuously  for  more  than 
three  millenniums,  and  perhaps  for  four,  or  even 
longer.  Omitting  altogether  the  mythical  and  leg- 
endary period,  we  will  begin  with  the  Chou  dynasty, 
the  epoch  of  China's  oldest  literature  and  the  period 
of  her  greatest  sages.  dura- 

date  TION  RULERS 

The  Chou  Dynasty  .  B.  C.  1122-255  867  34 
The  Ch'in  Dynasty         .  "      255-206       49       5 

The  Han  Dynasty  (Former, 

or  Western  Han)         ,  "   206-A.D.  25  231      14 

The  Han  Dynasty  (Later,  or 

Eastern  Han)     .        .        A.  D.    25-221      196      12 
The  "Three  Kingdoms"  "      221-265       44      n 

The  Western  Chin  Dynasty  "  265-317  52  4 
The  Eastern  Chin  Dynasty  "  317-420  103  11 
The  Liu  Sung  Dsmasty  "      420-479       59       9 

The  Ch'i  Dynasty  .         .  "      479-502        23        7 

The  Liang  Dynasty        .  "      502-557       55       6 

The  Ch'en  Dynasty        .  "      557-589       32       5 

(Five  Northern  Dynasties,  386-589,  31  Rulers) 
The  Sui  Dynasty    .        .  "      589-618       29       4 

The  T'ang  Dynasty         ,  "      618-907      289      22 

The  "  Five  Dynasties,"  Later 
Liang,  Later  T'ang,  Later 
Chin,     Later     Han,     and 

Later  Chou,        .        .  "      907-960       53      13 

The  Sung  Dynasty         .  "      960-1127    167       9 

The  Southern  Sung  Dynasty    "    1127-1280    153       9 
The   Yuan   Dynasty    (Mon- 
gol)    ....  "    1280-1368      88       9 
The  Ming  Dynasty         .           "    1368-1644    276      17 
The  Ch'ing  Dynasty   (Man- 
chu)     ....           "    1644-  9 


36       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  consolidation  of 
the  Empire,  first  achieved  by  Ch'in  Shih  Huang, 
was  a  permanent  feature.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
only  a  precedent.  Disunity  was  the  ruin  of  Greece, 
as  of  many  other  lands,  and  it  has  always  been  the 
curse  of  China.  Sometimes  a  dozen  different  con- 
testants were  struggling  to  establish  each  his  little 
kingdom,  and  often  all  fell  together  before  an  in- 
vader whom,  if  they  had  been  united,  they  might 
have  opposed  with  success.  In  the  long  and  impos- 
ing series  a  few  dynasties  and  a  few  monarchs  stand 
out  with  peculiar  prominence. 

The  seven  dynasties  which  in  themselves  and  in 
their  relations  are  most  interesting  to  Occidentals 
are  perhaps  the  Chou,  the  Han,  the  T'ang,  the  Sung, 
the  Yuan,  the  Ming,  and  the  present  Ch'ing  dy- 
nasty. Of  the  Chou  a  few  words  may  be  said  in 
a  following  chapter,  in  connection  with  its  great 
Sages  and  the  great  literature  which  then  appeared. 

The  Han  is  noted  for  the  reversal  of  Ch'in 
Shih  Huang's  policy  of  destroying  the  records  of 
the  past,  in  the  careful  search  for  such  as  remained, 
and  the  encouragement  of  scholarship.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  so-called  "  books  "  of  the  ear- 
liest Chinese  ages  were  bamboo  tablets,  varnished, 
upon  which  characters  were  inscribed  with  a  metal 
stylus,  but  not  a  single  specimen  is  known  to  be  now 
in  existence.  The  ten  "  stone  drums,"  still  to  be  seen 
in  the  Confucian  temple  in  Peking,  bear  inscriptions 
in  the  character  employed  in  the  Chou  dynasty,  to 


OLD   CHINA  37 

which  they  probably  belonged.  The  brush  pencil 
with  which  the  Chinese  write  their  characters  is 
ascribed  by  tradition  to  the  third  century  b.  c, 
though  it  may  be  earlier.  Paper  was  an  invention 
of  the  Han  period,  and  was  first  made  of  silk  (as 
one  form  of  the  character  representing  it  shows,  be- 
ing compounded  of  the  radical  signifying  silk), 
but  this  was  too  expensive,  and  was  succeeded  by 
the  inner  bark  of  trees,  old  rags,  and  fish  nets. 

In  the  year  b.  c.  190,  the  law  of  Ch'in  Shih  Huang 
against  the  existing  literature  was  repealed,  and  a 
literary  renaissance  ensued,  in  which  many  thousand 
works,  classical,  philosophical,  poetical,  military, 
mathematical,  and  medical,  were  laboriously  col- 
lected, but  at  the  close  of  the  dynasty  during  an 
insurrection  they  were  all  reduced  to  ashes.  Nearly 
every  succeeding  dynasty  has  repeated  the  process 
of  collection,  the  literary  treasures  at  one  time 
amounting  to  a  load  for  "  more  than  2,000  vehicles." 
In  later  catastrophes  these  would  be  again  and  again 
destroyed  or  lost.  Mr.  Wylie's  "  Notes  on  Chinese 
Literature,"  from  which  these  facts  are  quoted,  men- 
tions five  great  "  bibliothecal  catastrophes,"  includ- 
ing that  of  Ch'in  Shih  Huang,  in  the  final  one  of 
which,  occurring  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, the  greater  part  of  70,000  volumes  was  burned. 

The  Han  dynasty  was  the  formative  period  of 
Chinese  polity  and  institutions.  It  was  then  that 
the  system  of  competitive  examinations  had  its  rise, 
and  the  early  rulers  "  developed  literature,  com- 


38       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

merce,  arts,  and  good  government  to  a  degree  un- 
known before  anywhere  in  Asia."  Of  the  great 
T'ang  dynasty,  Dr.  Williams  remarks :  "  This  cel- 
ebrated line  of  princes  began  its  sway  in  peace,  and 
during  the  289  years  they  held  the  throne  China  was 
probably  the  most  civilised  country  on  earth;  the 
darkest  days  of  the  West,  when  Europe  was  wrapped 
in  the  ignorance  and  degradation  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  formed  the  brightest  era  of  the  East.  They 
exercised  a  humanising  effect  on  all  the  surrounding 
countries,  and  led  the  inhabitants  to  see  the  benefits 
and  understand  the  management  of  a  government 
where  the  laws  were  above  the  officers.  The  people 
along  the  southern  coast  were  completely  civilised 
and  incorporated  into  the  Chinese  race,  and  mark 
the  change  by  always  calling  themselves  *  Men  of 
T^ang '." 

The  second  T'ang  Emperor,  T'ai  Tsung  (62y- 
650),  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  Oriental  monarchs. 
He  cultivated  literature  and  learning,  building  an 
enormous  library  close  to  his  palace,  reminding  one 
in  several  ways  of  Alfred  the  Great.  He  became 
a  patron  of  the  Nestorian  Christians,  who  had  al- 
ready been  in  China  much  more  than  a  century, 
but  whose  sole  relic  is  a  tablet  of  black  marble 
erected  in  781,  which  still  stands  in  the  suburbs  of 
Si  Ngan  fu,  in  Shensi,  where  it  was  accidentally 
dug  up  by  workmen  in  the  year  1625. 

In  a  single  year  "  embassies  from  a  great  num- 
ber of  tributary  Kingdoms  and  States  came  to  the 


OLD    CHINA  39 

Capital  to  pay  their  respects  and  to  offer  tribute; 
and  the  great  variety  of  languages  spoken  by  the 
envoys  and  the  great  diversity  of  their  costumes 
testified  to  the  power  and  prestige  of  the  Chinese 
Empire."  The  T'ang  is  remembered  as  the  period 
in  which  the  first  somewhat  rude  printing  was  exe- 
cuted in  China,  five  hundred  years  before  the  art  was 
invented  in  Europe,  as  well  as  the  epoch  of  the  first 
paper  money,  so  much  in  evidence  a  few  centuries 
later  under  the  Mongols.  In  this  dynasty,  too, 
within  six  years  of  the  flight  of  Mohammed,  his 
followers  are  said  to  have  entered  China,  where 
they  have  ever  since  been  established,  especially  in 
certain  special  provinces,  to  the  present  reputed 
number  of  perhaps  twenty  millions.  They  are  of 
central  Asian  and  not  of  Arabic  descent. 

The  T'ang  was  the  golden  age  of  Chinese  poetry, 
of  which  a  collection  has  been  published  during  the 
present  dynasty,  running  to  the  length  of  nearly 
50,000  separate  poems.  Buddhism  made  great 
headway,  owing  to  the  unreligious  nature  of  the 
teachings  of  Confucius,  but  when  elaborate  prepa- 
rations were  made  to  receive  with  distinguished 
honour  a  bone  of  Sakyamuni  (or  Siddartha),  the 
founder  of  the  faith,  China's  ablest  statesman  and 
philosopher,  Han  Wen-kung,  wrote  an  overwhelm- 
ing attack  upon  the  innovation,  which  is  still  cher- 
ished as  a  model  of  unanswerable  reasoning.  He 
was  punished  by  banishment  to  the  southern  fron- 
tiers of  the  Empire,  where  he  tamed  the  barbarians 


40       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

of  the  region  now  known  as  Swatow,  returning  later 
to  enjoy  honour  while  he  lived  and  to  become  a  god 
of  literature  after  his  death.  He  is  also,  strange  to 
say,  in  some  parts  of  China  regarded  as  the  tute- 
lary god  of  the  Chinese  village.  Amid  the  internal 
and  external  struggles  which  constitute  so  large  a 
feature  of  Chinese  national  history,  "  the  eleventh 
century  holds  a  marked  place  as  the  commencement 
of  a  new  era  in  Chinese  literature."  Five  unimpor- 
tant dynasties  had  given  place  to  the  Sung,  which  in 
a  northern  and  a  southern  capital  controlled  the  des- 
tinies of  the  Empire  for  more  than  three  centuries. 
Ssu-Ma  Kuang  spent  nineteen  years  of  his  life  in 
preparing  a  Mirror  of  History  from  the  Chou  dy- 
nasty to  his  own  time. 

The  most  distinguished  man  produced  by  China 
at  the  time  of  the  Sungs  was  undoubtedly  Chu  Hsi 
(a.  d.  1 1 30- 1 200),  who  was  at  once  a  statesman 
and  a  voluminous  author,  and  whose  interpretations 
of  the  Classics,  varying  widely  from  those  of  the 
Han,  have  become  the  standard  of  orthodoxy  ever 
since.  The  adoption  of  a  hard  and  fast  system  of 
exegesis  in  works  of  so  wide  a  scope  and  so  vast  a 
range  has  tended  to  run  the  intellectual  and  moral 
nature  of  the  Chinese  in  cast-iron  moulds,  and  is 
probably  the  principal  factor  in  the  unalterable  fixity 
of  China.  The  influence  of  Chu  Hsi  over  the  mil- 
lions of  educated  Chinese  since  his  time  may  justly 
be  reckoned  as  second  only  to  that  of  Confucius 
and  Mencius,  whom  he  expounded. 


OLD   CHINA  41 

It  is  of  interest  to  learn  that  more  than  eight 
centuries  ago  there  was  in  China  a  socialistic  states- 
man of  the  Sung  dynasty,  named  Wang  An-shih, 
whose  influence  over  the  Emperor  whose  reign  is 
styled  Shen  Tsung  (a.  d.  1068- 1086)  was  so  great 
that  he  was  allowed  to  put  his  ideas  into  practice. 
Among  the  reforms  proposed  by  him  were  the  fol- 
lowing :  ( I )  The  nationalisation  of  the  commerce  of 
the  Empire.  The  taxes  were  to  be  paid  in  the  pro- 
duce of  the  land  and  in  manufactured  commodities, 
and  the  surplus  products  and  commodities  were  to  be 
purchased  by  the  Government,  which  would  after- 
wards transport  them  to  the  different  parts  of  the 
Empire  where  they  were  in  demand,  and  sell  them 
at  a  reasonable  profit.  This  reform  was  intended  to 
do  away  with  the  oppression  of  the  rich,  who  bought 
from  the  poor  at  as  low  rates  as  possible,  and,  gain- 
ing control  of  the  market,  sold  at  exorbitant  prices. 
(2)  State  advances  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 
It  was  proposed  that  the  Government  should  ad- 
vance capital  to  the  poor  farmers,  to  be  repaid  after 
the  harvests  in  the  sixth  and  tenth  months,  and  that 
the  rate  of  interest  for  such  loans  should  be  two  per 
cent,  per  month.  (3)  The  Militia  Enrollment  Act. 
It  was  proposed  to  divide  the  whole  Empire  into 
divisions  of  ten  families,  with  a  headman,  with  ad- 
ditional headmen  for  fifty  families,  and  for  five  hun- 
dred. Each  family  with  more  than  one  son  was 
bound  to  give  one  for  the  service  of  the  State,  like 
the  landwehr.     (4)  The  imposition  of  an  income 


42       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

tax  for  the  construction  of  public  works.  This  was 
intended  as  a  substitute  for  compulsory  labour,  but 
it  was  impossible  to  ascertain  the  incomes,  and  the 
plan  was  violently  opposed,  and  like  all  the  reform- 
ers' schemes  came  to  naught,  ending  in  his  disgrace. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  frugality  and  of 
obstinacy,  being  always  perfectly  certain  that  he  was 
right  and  every  one  else  was  wrong. 

It  is  a  characteristic  Chinese  trait  that  all  these 
innovations  were  based  upon  certain  new  and  more 
correct  interpretations  of  portions  of  the  ancient 
classics.  The  name  of  Wang  An-shih  has  gener- 
ally been  treated  with  contempt  by  the  historians  of 
China,  and  his  economic  theories  have  been  looked 
upon  as  dangerous  and  destructive  innovations. 

Kublai  Khan,  of  the  Yuan  or  Mongol  dynasty, 
was  a  grandson  of  the  world-renowned  Tartar,  Gen- 
ghis Khan,  who  first  carried  his  conquests  over  al- 
most the  whole  of  Asia  from  the  Pacific  to  the 
Caspian  Sea,  and  then  threatened  Europe.  Kublai 
Khan  was  a  liberal  and  an  enlightened  monarch  who 
adopted  Chinese  ways,  patronised  Chinese  literature, 
and  under  whose  rule  the  Empire  greatly  prospered. 
He  extended  the  partial  system  of  existing  canals 
and  dug  new  connections,  so  that  Hangchow,  in  the 
Chekiang  province,  which  was  one  of  his  capitals, 
was  united  by  inland  waterways  six  hundred  or  more 
miles  in  length  with  Peking  (then  called  Cambaluc). 
This  made  the  transportation  of  tribute  rice  inde- 
pendent of  the  long  and  dangerous  sea  route.    It  was 


OLD   CHINA  43 

in  the  reign  of  this  great  ruler  that  Marco  Polo 
(1275)  made  his  memorable  visit  to  Cathay,  so- 
called  (from  the  Khitan  Tartars),  which  may  be 
considered  the  rediscovery  of  China  by  the  West. 
The  first  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  to  reach 
China  met  with  a  reception  from  Kublai  Khan  not 
unlike  that  of  the  Nestorians  from  T'ai  Tsung,  of 
the  T'ang  dynasty.  Under  Kublai's  rule  the  Chi- 
nese Empire  became  the  most  extensive  domain  that 
had  ever  been  ruled  by  one  man,  stretching  from  the 
Yellow  to  the  Black  Sea,  and  from  northern  Mon- 
golia to  the  frontiers  of  Annam. 

The  short-lived  Mongol  rule  soon  gave  place  to 
the  Chinese  Mings,  who  governed  the  Empire  for 
more  than  three  centuries,  and  then  fell  into  decay, 
as  all  dynasties  in  China  sooner  or  later  do.  Not 
one  of  the  Ming  monarchs  was  a  ruler  of  the  highest 
ability;  but  the  dynasty  as  a  whole  makes  a  very 
good  historical  showing.  It  is  of  especial  interest 
to  Occidentals,  because  it  embraces  the  earlier  period 
of  modern  European  intercourse  with  China,  to 
which  further  reference  must  be  made  elsewhere. 
Like  all  the  more  important  periods,  the  Ming  era 
was  a  time  of  great  literary  activity.  In  its  earlier 
years  the  Imperial  library  was  said  to  contain  300,- 
000  books  and  more  than  double  that  number  of 
manuscripts.  To  bring  this  vast  wilderness  of  learn- 
ing within  reach,  the  second  Ming  Emperor,  whose 
reign  is  called  Yung  Le,  undertook  one  of  the  most 
gigantic  enterprises  in  the  annals  of  bibliographx. 


44       CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

He  appointed  a  committee  of  scholars  "to  collect 
in  one  body  the  substance  of  all  the  classical,  his- 
torical, philosophical,  and  literary  works  hitherto 
published,  embracing  astronomy,  geography,  the  oc- 
cult sciences,  medicine,  Buddhism,  Taoism,  and  the 
arts."  There  were  three  presidents  of  the  commis- 
sion, five  chief  directors,  twenty  sub-directors,  and 
2,169  subordinates.  The  work  was  completed  in 
1407 — ^just  five  hundred  years  ago — and  contained 
in  all  22,877  books,  besides  the  table  of  contents, 
which  occupied  sixty  books. 

During  the  siege  of  Peking  in  1900,  the  Han- 
lin  Academy,  which  contained  the  only  known  copy 
of  this  literary  monument  in  the  empire,  was  fired 
by  the  government  troops,  with  the  desire  of  burn- 
ing the  British  legation.  A  great  number  of  the 
volumes  were  destroyed  by  fire  and  by  water,  the  re- 
mainder being  dispersed  to  libraries  and  museums 
all  over  the  world. 

The  second  Emperor  of  the  Manchu  dynasty  was 
K'ang  Hsi  (1662- 1723),  whose  life  was  contempo- 
raneous with  that  of  Louis  XIV,  of  France.  His 
long  reign  of  sixty-one  years  was  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  in  all  Chinese  history,  for  he  was  "  a  great 
warrior,  an  able  scholar,  and  a  wise  ruler."  He 
endeavoured  to  stop  foot-binding  among  Chinese 
girls,  a  practice  dating  from  the  T'angs,  but,  after 
four  years  of  failure,  the  edict,  lest  it  should  cost 
him  the  throne,  was  withdrawn.  As  the  men  had 
been  forced  to  adopt  the  Tartar  cue,  on  pain  of  los- 


OLD    CHINA  45 

ing  their  heads,  the  inference  that  Chinese  women 
were  not  susceptible  of  being  controlled  by  Imperial 
decrees  was  not  lost  upon  the  Chinese  themselves. 

Prof.  Giles  considers  K'ang  Hsi  "  the  most  suc- 
cessful patron  of  literature  the  world  has  ever  seen." 
He  caused  to  be  prepared  a  great  collection  of  ex- 
tracts in  no  volumes,  an  encyclopedia  in  450  books, 
an  enlarged  Herbal,  a  complete  collection  of  the 
most  important  philosophical  writings  of  Chu  Hsi, 
and  also  a  great  Lexicon  of  the  Chinese  language, 
embracing  over  44,000  characters,  illustrated  by 
citations  from  authors  of  every  age  and  style. 

His  grandson,  Ch'ien  Lung,  who  on  the  comple- 
tion of  his  sixtieth  year  of  rule  abdicated  his  throne 
for  the  Chinese  reason  that  he  might  not  be  guilty  of 
an  infraction  of  filial  piety  in  reigning  longer  than 
his  grandfather,  was,  like  him,  a  man  of  letters,  and 
executed  great  literary  enterprises,  including  "(i), 
a  magnificent  bibliographical  work  in  200  parts,  con- 
sisting of  a  catalogue  of  the  books  of  the  Imperial 
library,  with  valuable  historical  and  critical  notices 
attached  to  the  entries  in  each,  and  (2)  a  huge  to- 
pography of  the  whole  Empire  in  500  books,  beyond 
doubt  one  of  the  most  comprehensive  and  exhaust- 
ive works  of  the  kind  ever  published."  This  mon- 
arch was  likewise  for  more  than  fifty  years  an 
industrious  poet,  "  finding  time  in  the  intervals  of 
State  duties  to  put  together  no  fewer  than  33,950 
separate  pieces" — some  of  them,  however,  being 
distichs,  or  antithetical  couplets,  and  others  four- 


46       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

line  stanzas.  He  was  also  a  warrior,  and,  like  his 
grandfather,  a  successful  statesman.  His  armies 
defeated  the  King  of  Burmah,  and  forced  into  sub- 
mission the  fiery  Gurkhas  on  the  further  side  of  the 
almost  impenetrable  Himalayas.  When  he  died, 
in  1796,  "  from  the  steppes  of  Mongolia  on  the 
north  to  Cochin  China  on  the  south,  from  Formosa 
on  the  east  to  Nepaul  on  the  west,  the  Chinese  ar- 
mies had  everywhere  been  victorious."  It  was  not 
a  happy  omen  that  this  military  glory  coincided  with 
the  period  during  which  the  pressure  of  the  untam- 
able European  in  China  began  to  be  most  irksome. 

Every  Englishman,  it  is  said,  is  an  Island,  and 
every  American  a  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Every  Chinese  may  be  regarded  as  an  epitome  of 
twenty-five  dynasties  and  of  the  reigns  of  more 
than  two  hundred  emperors. 


IV 

A  GREAT   RACE 

Students  of  Chinese  antiquity  like  Dr.  James 
Legge,  who  translated  and  with  abundant  learning 
edited  all  the  voluminous  Chinese  Classics,  from  in- 
cidental allusions  in  the  Odes  and  the  Book  of 
History  and  from  drawings  on  stones  showing  the 
domestic  utensils,  the  dwellings,  the  agricultural 
implements,  the  modes  of  transportation  of  the  Chou 
dynasty,  conclude  that  the  normal  life  of  the  average 
Chinese  of  to-day  is  in  many  of  its  essentials  not 
unlike  that  of  his  ancestors  of  2,500  years  ago.  To 
understand  this  fact  and  the  reasons  for  it  is  of  the 
utmost  importance,  if  we  are  at  all  to  comprehend 
China.  Occidental  history  has  generally  proceeded 
along  apparently  irregular  lines,  resembling  earth- 
quake shocks,  producing  geologic  "  faults."  Chi- 
nese history,  on  the  other  hand,  may  be  likened  to 
the  imperceptibly  slow  rise  of  a  continent,  which, 
leaving  the  natural  scenery  unaltered,  conveys  the 
erroneous  impression  that  "  all  things  continue  as 
they  were  from  the  beginning  of  creation." 

In  the  words  of  one  of  the  most  recent  and  most 
competent  writers  upon  the  Far  East :  *'  No  other 
nation  with  which  the  world  is  acquainted  has  been 
so  constantly  true  to  itself;  no  other  nation  has 

47 


48       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

preserved  its  type  so  unaltered ;  no  other  nation  has 
developed  a  civilisation  so  completely  independent 
of  any  extraneous  influences;  no  other  nation  has 
elaborated  its  own  ideas  in  such  absolute  segregation 
from  alien  thoughts ;  no  other  nation  has  preserved 
the  long  stream  of  its  literature  so  entirely  free 
from  foreign  affluents;  no  other  nation  has  ever 
reached  a  moral  and  national  elevation  compara- 
tively so  high  above  the  heads  of  contemporary 
States."  ^  If  "  civilisation  "  be  taken  as  signifying 
the  replacing  of  physical  by  intellectual,  and  of  in- 
tellectual by  moral  force,  there  can  be  no  question  of 
the  antiquity,  the  extent,  and  the  reality  of  Chinese 
civilisation.  If,  as  we  so  unceasingly  reaffirm,  self- 
preservation  is  the  first  law  of  Nature,  there  can  be 
no  disputing  that  the  Chinese  have  lived  "  according 
to  Nature  " — nay,  that  they  are  the  only  people  that 
have  so  lived,  since  they  are  the  only  ones  who  have 
survived ;  and  now,  after  several  millenniums  of  rel- 
atively slow  "  progress,"  are  beginning  to  show  that 
they  have  a  reserve  fund  of  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  energy  which  is  not  only  not  exhausted,  but 
is  practically  inexhaustible.  Is  not  this  a  phenom- 
enon worthy  of  our  investigation? 

Reflections  of  this  sort  must  occur  to  those  who 
are  confronted  with  the  Chinese.  One  of  the  ear- 
liest expressions  of  them  is  to  be  found  in  a  work 
called  "  The  Chinese  and  their  Rebellions,"  pub- 
lished more  than  fifty  years  ago  by  one  of  Her 

1  Capt.  F.  Brinkley,  in  Oriental  Series,  "  Japan  and  China," 
Vol.  10,  page  I. 


A    GREAT    RACE  49 

Majesty's  Consuls,  Mr.  T.  T.  Meadows,  a  man 
of  philosophic  temper  and  of  large  knowledge  of 
China,  in  the  form  of  a  meditation  while  seated  on 
the  Great  Pyramid :  "  These  old  stone  blocks  I  am 
sitting  upon,  what  different  peoples  they  have  looked 
down  on  in  this  Nile  valley  below!  First  their 
old  hewers  flourished  and  fell.  Then  came  the  Per- 
sians. Then  the  Greeks  ruled  here  and  founded 
Alexandria.  After  them  came  the  Romans;  their 
traces  are  visible  in  old  Cairo  there.  Egyptians, 
Greeks,  and  Romans  have  all  utterly  disappeared 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  They  have  been  fol- 
lowed here  by  the  Mohammedan  Arabs,  at  first  en- 
thusiastic fighters  for  the  name  of  the  One  True 
God,  now  mere  *  backshish  hunters '  from  these 
guides  up  to  their  Pashas.  They  too  must  vanish; 
they  are  in  fact  vanishing  as  a  nation  before  our 
eyes.  The  Chinese  started  in  the  race  of  national 
existence  with  the  oldest  of  the  old  Egyptians,  long 
before  this  huge  mound  of  stones  was  piled  up. 
They  outlived  their  ancient  contemporaries.  They 
outlived  the  Persians.  They  outlived  the  Greeks. 
They  have  outlived  the  Romans;  and  they  will  out- 
live these  Arabs.  For  they  have  as  much  youth  and 
vitality  in  them  as  the  youngest  of  young  nations. 
.  .  .  Here  are  the  Chinese  who  have  pro- 
longed their  existence  for  4,cxx)  years,  and  nobody 
asks  how  ?  I  believe  I  am  the  only  man  living  that 
has  given  himself  serious  trouble  to  investigate  and 
elucidate  the  causes. 


50       CHINA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY 

"  What  narrow-viewed  observers  in  some  respects 
Occidentals  are!  Even  Bunsen  in  his  book  on 
Egypt  makes  some  slighting  remark  on  the  old  Chi- 
nese, as  compared  with  the  old  Egyptians.  Yet 
the  former  had  to  the  latter  something  of  the  supe- 
riority that  mind  has  to  matter.  They  both  of  them 
tried  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  themselves.  The 
old  Egyptians  tried  to  do  it  by  working  on  dead 
matter.  They  mummied  their  bodies  and  wasted 
an  enormous  amount  of  labour  in  piling  up  these 
stone  mountains,  good  for  no  purpose  of  true  civili- 
sation; and  Occidentals  look  back  with  respect  on 
them  for  doing  it.  The  old  Chinese,  Yao  and  Shun 
— ^at  the  mere  mention  of  whose  names  these  same 
Occidentals  break  out  into  grins  as  broad  as  those 
of  donkeys  eating  thistles — ^the  old  Chinese  fixed 
their  eyes  on  certain  ineradicable  principles  of  man's 
mind ;  and,  working  on  these,  have  founded  and  built 
up  a  monument,  the  grandest  and  most  gigantic  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  a  thoroughly  national  nation 
of  360  millions  of  rational,  industrious,  and  ener- 
getic people. 

In  an  attempt  to  suggest  by  a  few  hints  the  sources 
of  the  great  qualities  of  the  Chinese  people,  one  is 
confronted  by  the  obvious  impossibility  of  correctly 
epitomising  elements  so  elusory  and  obscure,  and 
withal  so  widely  different  from  those  with  which  we 
are  familiar  in  the  development  of  the  West.  As  we 
have  seen,  there  were  in  the  legendary  period  of  Chi- 
nese history  men  like  Yao,  Shun,  and  Yii,  who  were 


A   GREAT   RACE  51 

called  "  Sheng,"  or  Holy  Men  (not  with  reference 
to  likeness  to  the  character  of  a  Holy  Being,  but  as 
embodying  the  conception  of  completeness — ^whole- 
ness). These  men  had  an  instinctive  apperception  of 
that  Ultimate  Principle  which  is  the  furthest  and 
highest  reach  of  Chinese  philosophy — the  Absolute, 
the  source  of  all  things.  For  this  reason  their  teach- 
ings were  deemed  absolutely  true,  and  the  Holy 
Books  which  comprised  them  are  an  infallible  au- 
thority. 

Confucius  (bom  in  what  is  now  the  province  of 
Shantung,  b.  c.  551,  died  478),  the  last  of  this  line 
of  Holy  Men,  was  both  a  philosopher  and  a  states- 
man whose  temperament  and  education  fitted  him 
to  become,  as  he  said  that  he  was,  a  transmitter  of 
the  past  for  the  reformation  of  the  present.^  Al- 
though at  different  times  he  held  office,  his  main 
work  was  in  training  a  large  body  of  disciples  and 
in  editing  the  works  of  antiquity.     It  is  these  an- 

2  "To  these  favouring  conditions  [of  climate,  etc.]  we  may- 
well  attribute  the  fact  that  here  in  the  hills  of  Shantung  the 
peculiar  civilisation  of  the  Chinese  attained  its  highest  devel- 
opment, and  produced  in  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  be- 
fore our  era,  a  school  of  philosophers  worthy  to  rank  with 
their  contemporaries  in  the  West — in  India  and  in  Greece.  It 
seems  a  marvellous  coincidence  that  three  advanced  schools 
of  elevated  human  thought  should  have  thus  arisen  in  three 
distinct  centres  totally  independent  of  each  other;  schools 
which  fixed  the  type  of  the  three  great  civilisations  of  the 
world — the  Chinese,  the  Indian,  and  the  Greek,  this  latter 
the  foundation  upon  which  rests  the  modem  civilisation  of 
Europe  and  the  West."— Mr.  Archibald  Little  in  "The  Far 
East,"  p.  23. 


52       CHINA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY 

cient  books,  with  his  own  additions,  and  those  of  his 
disciples,  which  form  the  Chinese  Classics. 

"  Immediately  after  the  Holy  Men  are  the  wise 
and  worthy  men,  or  Sages.  The  Sage  does  not 
possess  intuitively  a  full  apperception  of  the  work 
of  the  Ultimate  Principle  in  men  and  things,  nor  the 
faculty  of  spontaneously  yielding  complete  obedi- 
ence to  the  dictates  of  his  own  perfect  human  nature ; 
but  he  attains  a  full  apperception  and  a  complete 
obedience  by  dint  of  study  and  effort.  The  Sages 
stand  therefore  decidedly  below  the  Holy  Men; 
there  are  even  degrees  among  the  Sages,  while  the 
Holy  Men,  being  from  the  first  all  perfectly  wise  and 
good,  are  all  equal.  Still,  the  Sage  who  does  attain 
that  highest  standard  of  excellence  which  is  the  ob- 
ject of  his  efforts,  stands  as  a  teacher  almost  if  not 
quite  on  a  level  with  the  Holy  Man."  Mencius 
(bom  also  in  Shantung  b.  c.  372,  died  279)  was 
the  greatest  of  the  Sages.  The  Chinese  consider 
Heaven,  Earth,  and  Man  as  a  trinity,  in  which 
Heaven  is  Father,  Earth  is  Mother,  and  Man  is  the 
product  of  the  two.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the 
Emperor  is  the  "  Son  of  Heaven,"  while  the  Sun  is 
his  elder  brother,  and  the  Moon  his  elder  sister. 
The  three  fundamental  tenets  of  Confucian  thought 
may  be  said  to  be  (in  the  language  of  Mr.  Meadows, 
from  whom  the  preceding  paragraph  is  quoted) : 
The  Fundamental  Unity  which  underlies  the  variety 
of  phenomena  in  Nature ;  the  existence  in  the  midst 
of  all  change  of  an  eternal  Harmonious  Order; 


A    GREAT    RACE  53 

and  that  man  is  endowed  at  his  birth  with  a 
nature  which  is  radically  good.  This  latter  doctrine 
may  be  considered  as  the  threshold  of  Chinese  learn- 
ing, since  it  is  embodied  in  the  opening  couplet  of 
the  "trimetrical  classic,"  dating  from  the  Sung 
dynasty,  which  is  generally  the  first  book  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  little  pupil,  who  learns  to  shout  at  the 
top  of  his  voice : 

"All  men  at  the  beginning  have  a  virtuous  nature: 
"In  their  nature  all  agree,  but  in  their  practice  they  dififer 
widely." 

Right  rule  is  therefore  merely  the  directing  of 
human  affairs  in  harmony  with  the  law  of  heaven. 
Man's  nature  being  thus  perfectly  good,  its  qual- 
ities as  exhibited  in  active  relation  to  the  world  are 
exhibited  under  the  heads  of  Five  Constant  Virtues, 
represented  in  English  by  the  words  Benevolence, 
Righteousness,  Propriety,  Wisdom,  and  Fidelity; 
but  it  must  be  noted  that  these  words  convey 
but  a  part  of  the  meaning  implied,  especially  in  the 
case  of  "propriety,"  which  connotes  not  only  that 
which  ought  to  be  done  under  certain  conditions, 
but  the  principles  which  lead  to  it.  Heaven  has 
placed  men  in  certain  fixed  "  relations,"  which  are 
five  in  number,  that  of  Prince  to  Minister,  Parent 
to  Child,  Husband  to  Wife,  Brother  to  Brother,  and 
Friend  to  Friend. 

As  a  "religion,"  for  which  the  Chinese  employ 
only  the  word  Instruction,  the  Confucian  system  of 


54       CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

thought  involves  the  worship  on  the  part  of  the 
Emperor  of  the  powers  of  Nature,  and  on  the  part 
of  both  Emperor  and  people  the  worship  of  the  Holy 
Men,  Sages,  and  Heroes  of  the  Past,  who  thus  be- 
come practically  deified.  It  involves  especially  the 
worship  of  ancestors,  who  stand  in  the  relation  of 
the  fountain  to  the  stream,  and  of  the  root  to  the 
tree. 

While  the  Chinese,  like  their  great  Master,  Con- 
fucius, have  always  been  agnostics  in  regard  to  a 
future  life,  the  ceremonies  of  ancestral  worship  have 
always  been  regarded  as  of  prime  importance,  and 
constitute  their  real  religion.  This  worship  may  be 
regarded  in  one  aspect  as  a  memorial  service,  in 
which  the  worshippers  are  brought  near  to  the  de- 
ceased and  the  deceased  are  brought  near  to  them. 
In  another  aspect,  this  worship  is  a  formula  im- 
peratively required  by  Filial  Piety,  and  by  which 
blessings  and  protection  are  afforded  and  ills  are 
forefended.  This  dependence  of  the  living  upon  the 
dead  is  matched  by  a  like  dependence  of  the  dead 
upon  the  living,  resulting  in  a  substantial  unification 
of  the  past  and  the  present.  "  The  individual  char- 
acter of  the  Chinese,  in  which,  with  all  its  defects, 
there  is  so  much  to  admire,  owes  much  of  its  strength 
to  the  training  which  the  young  have  always  re- 
ceived in  reverence  both  for  living  parents  and  au- 
thorities, as  well  as  for  dead  ancestors."  "  The 
descendants  are  sharers  in  the  virtues  and  illustrious 
deeds  of  their  forefathers,  and  the  forefathers  again 


A   GREAT    RACE  55 

are  ennobled  by  the  illustrious  deeds  of  their  pos- 
terity." The  rites  of  ancestral  worship  and  the 
age-long  system  of  civil  service  examinations  are 
doubtless  the  two  leading  factors  in  producing  that 
mental  and  moral  unification  of  the  Chinese  which 
has  resulted  in  its  homogeneity  and  perpetuity." 

The  system  of  thought  which  we  designate  as 
Confucianism  has  many  great  excellences,  and  like- 
wise many  inherent  defects,  each  of  which  has 
brought  forth  fruit  after  its  kind ;  but  we  are  in  this 
connection  concerned  merely  to  show  that  it  has 
been  a  mighty  force  producing  through  long  peri- 
ods of  time  effects  elsewhere  unequalled.  In  the 
prefecture  of  Yen  Chou,  and  the  district  of  Ch'{i  Fu 
hsien  in  the  Shantung  province,  is  the  grave  of 
China's  "  throneless  King."  After  an  interval  of 
intermittent  neglect,  extending  to  about  three  centu- 
ries, this  spot  was  recognised  by  Imperial  command, 
and  has  been  the  objective  of  millions  of  pilgrim- 
ages for  more  than  two  thousand  years.  A  few 
miles  to  the  south  lies  the  simple,  unenclosed  mound 
which  marks  the  last  resting-place  of  Mencius, 
whose  influence  in  their  long  history  is  second  only 
to  that  of  the  Master. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  renaissance  of 
China  is  in  Chinese  thought  indissolubly  associated 
with  that  Master  whose  face  at  that  remote  period 
was  toward  the  more  ancient  ancients,  in  the  imita- 
tion of  whom  he  saw  his  country's  only  hope.  It  is 
therefore  significant  that  at  the  close  of  the  year 


56       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY  i 

1906,  2,384  years  after  his  death,  an  Imperial  decree 
was  issued  ordering  that  henceforth  Confucius  shall 
be  honoured  by  the  same  ceremonies  and  sacrifices  as 
are  employed  by  the  Emperor  in  the  worship  of 
Heaven  and  Earth.  China  has  no  Egyptian  obe- 
lisks or  Palmyran  pillars,  nor  is  the  greatness  of  her 
civilisation  in  need  of  them.  In  this  Empire,  even 
more  than  elsewhere  history  is,  in  Carlyle's  phrase, 
at  bottom  the  story  of  its  great  men.  In  the  second 
century  of  our  era,  under  the  Han  dynasty,  there 
was  an  official  named  Yang  Chen,  a  native  of  Shansi, 
who  was  appointed  Governor  of  a  region  now  com- 
prised within  the  province  of  Shantung.  As  he 
passed  through  a  certain  city  an  old  friend,  who  was 
now  to  be  a  subordinate  to  him,  called  upon  him  in 
the  evening  with  the  usual  present  of  money  from  an 
inferior  to  a  superior.  "  Surely,"  said  Yang  Chen, 
"  though  your  old  friend  has  not  forgotten  you,  you 
have  forgotten  your  old  friend."  "  It  is  dark,"  re- 
plied his  friend,  "  and  no  one  will  know."  "  Not 
know  ? "  said  Yang  Chen,  "  Heaven  will  know, 
Earth  will  know,  you  will  know,  and  I  shall  know. 
How  can  you  say,  *  No  one  will  know '  ?  "  And 
from  this  circumstance  the  ancestral  hall  of  the  Yang- 
family  is  to  this  day  called :  "  The  Hall  of  Four 
Knowings."  Through  the  decay  of  morals  at  court, 
Yang  Chen  lost  his  influence  and  his  posts,  and  drank 
a  cup  of  poison.  He  would  receive  no  bribes.  He 
laid  up  no  store  for  his  descendants,  and  when  a 
friend  remonstrated  with  him  on  leaving  nothing 


A    GREAT    RACE  57 

to  his  sons  or  grandsons,  he  replied :  "  If  posterity 
should  speak  of  me  as  an  incorruptible  official,  would 
that  be  nothing?  "  Is  it  any  wonder  that  he  is  rev- 
erenced to-day? 

Near  the  city  of  Wei  Hui  fu,  in  northwestern 
Honan,  may  be  seen  a  large  tumulus  marking  the 
burial-spot  of  an  incorruptible  minister,  named  Pi 
Kan,  who,  at  the  command  of  a  wicked  King,  to 
whom  he  was  related,  was  killed,  to  ascertain 
whether  his  heart  had  "  seven  openings,"  as  that 
of  a  Sage  is  reputed  to  do.  This  happened  in  b.  c. 
1 123,  and  the  lesson  of  the  consequent  downfall  of 
the  Shang  dynasty  has  never  for  a  moment  of  the 
intervening  three  thousand  years  been  forgotten; 
nor  have  maledictions  on  the  tyrant  and  encomiums 
upon  the  minister  ever  ceased. 

This  much  having  been  said  in  regard  to  the  back- 
ground of  Chinese  history  and  Chinese  thought,  it 
remains  to  speak  of  a  few  race-traits  in  which  the 
qualities  inherent  in  the  Chinese  may  be  concretely 
discerned.  The  first  to  be  named  follows  immedi- 
ately from  the  data  already  presented.  It  may  be 
termed  Reverence  for  the  Past.  This  is  carried  to 
a  pitch  which  to  the  Occidental  is  simply  incompre- 
hensible, and  extends  from  the  past  as  a  whole  to 
everything  in  it,  considered  in  detail.  Citations  from 
the  works  esteemed  as  classical,  and  sayings  embody- 
ing the  fruit  of  the  longest  experience  in  the  fewest 
words,  are  universally  current,  even  among  the 
illiterate,  as  an  epitome  of  wisdom  unquestioned 


58       CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

and  unquestionable.  The  sum  total  of  these  dicta  is 
"  axiomatic  China." 

More  than  any  other  race  in  Asia,  probably  more 
than  any  people  in  the  world,  the  Chinese  have  the 
historic  instinct,  which,  as  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, has  produced  the  most  voluminous  annals 
of  every  period.  Dynasties  have  come  and  have 
gone;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  the  general  current  of 
Chinese  history  has  not  been  essentially  altered. 
In  China  it  has  always  been  profoundly  felt  that 
"through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs," 
not  for  the  development  of  the  new,  but  for  the 
preservation  of  the  old.  Every  province  and  every 
city  has  its  own  records.  Family  genealogies  are 
considered  of  great  importance,  and  in  the  case  of 
the  oldest  clans  they  extend  back  for  four-score 
generations. 

It  is  the  immeasurable  greatness  of  China  of  which 
the  Chinese  are,  as  it  were,  unconsciously  proud, 
and  to  preserve  it,  if  they  can,  has  been  at  once  their 
unconscious  and  their  conscious  aim.  This  is  the  root 
of  that  conservatism  without  which  China  would 
have  long  since  disappeared,  like  those  other  great 
empires,  the  rise,  development,  and  decay  of  which 
she  has  witnessed  with  a  not  unnatural  feeling  of 
calm  superiority.  To  them  the  strange  evolutions 
of  Occidental  history  must  resemble  the  antics  of  a 
mouse  in  a  jar  of  oxygen.  The  Chinese  have  had 
very  little  oxygen,  but  then  they  have  had  very  little 
death  from  an  overdose.    They  have  fallen  into  a 


A   GREAT    RACE  59 

practical  veneration  of  "  old-time  custom,"  as  if  it 
were  a  divinity.  At  the  close  of  an  address,  in  which 
this  unchanging  element  of  Chinese  life  and  history 
was  pointed  out,  as  distinguished  from  the  many 
short-lived  empires  and  kingdoms  of  the  Orient  and 
the  Occident,  a  bright  English-speaking  Chinese 
schoolgirl  wished  to  inquire  which  is  better  for  a 
nation,  to  have  many  evolutionary  (and  revolution- 
ary) changes  and  then  go  to  pieces,  or  by  avoiding 
them  to  become  a  hardy  perennial?  Perhaps  the 
reader  has  his  own  preference.  The  Chinese  likewise 
have  theirs. 

From  antiquity  the  Chinese  have  been  imbued  with 
a  high  regard  for  mental  effort.  The  earliest  char- 
acter in  the  first  of  the  Chinese  Classics — the  Mem- 
orabilia of  Confucius — is  that  signifying  to  "  learn." 
When  Chang  Chih-tung,  Govemor-Greneral  of  the 
two  provinces  of  Hunan  and  Hupeh,  wished  to  put 
forth  a  book  which  should  stir  the  Chinese  to  the 
depths  of  their  being  with  a  sense  of  their  own  de- 
ficiencies, he  entitled  it  simply,  "  Learn !  "  ^ 

As  the  Chinese  symbols  of  thought  are  unique  in 
human  literature,  so  likewise  has  been  Chinese  devo- 
tion to  them.  A  singularly  irrational  system  of  in- 
struction and  general  poverty  has  produced  among 
the  great  bulk  of  the  common  people  a  compulsory 
illiteracy,  but  it  is  always  accompanied  by  a  profound 
respect,  not  only  for  mentality,  but  even  for  the 

*  The  translator  has  paraphrased  and  expanded  the  author's 
meaning  by  rendering  it  into  English  as  "  China's  Only  Hope." 


6o       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

characters  which  embody  it.  Benevolent  societies 
send  men  about  the  streets  of  cities  with  baskets,  to. 
gather  up  scraps  of  paper  upon  which  anything  has 
been  written  or  printed,  receptacles  being  provided 
in  which  the  paper  is  stored  until  burned  in  special 
furnaces.  Western  indifference  to  the  fate  of  written 
or  printed  matter  appears  to  the  Chinese  as  an  indi- 
cation of  serious  moral  obtuseness. 

It  is  a  popular  proverb  that  to  steal  a  book  is  not 
a  crime.  The  trimetrical  classic,  already  mentioned 
as  the  first  handbook  to  which  the  scholar  is  intro- 
duced, teaches  him  that 

"Dogs  watch  at  night;  bees  make  honey; 
If  one  does  not  learn,  he  is  inferior  to  animals  and  insects." 

'At  the  head  of  the  four  classes  into  which,  for 
many  thousand  years,  mankind  have  been  divided 
are  placed  Scholars ;  Farmers  and  Workmen  follow, 
and  Merchants  stand  lowest  of  all,  because  they 
merely  distribute  and  do  not  produce.  Chinese 
officials,  with  their  complicated  series  of  nine  ranks, 
each  subdivided  into  primary  and  secondary,  are 
discriminated  as  civil — the  word  for  which  is  the 
same  as  that  for  literature — and  military,  the  former 
respected  and  honoured,  while  the  latter  are  rela- 
tively looked  down  upon.  One  of  the  current  **  re- 
forms "  is  the  elevation  of  the  military  official  to  a 
parity  with  the  civil  officer,  in  accordance  with  the 
custom  of  the  West. 


A   GREAT   RACE  6i 

Confucius  is  considered  as  the  embodiment  of  that 
moral  teaching  which  has  always  commended  itself 
to  every  Confucianist,  that  is,  to  every  Chinese. 
When  the  Chinese  perceive  Occidentals  to  be  experts 
in  the  use  of  natural  forces,  but  apparently  indiffer- 
ent to  the  principles  of  Reason  (Li),  and  Propriety, 
or  the  code  of  social  order  upon  which  Confucius 
and  his  followers  always  laid  so  much  stress  and  by 
which  all  human  relations  ought  to  be  regulated, 
they  not  unnaturally  conclude  that  while  Westerners 
are  ingenious  in  mechanics,  they  cannot  have  had 
the  privilege  of  a  moral  training  in  the  way  of  the 
Sages. 

It  is,  indeed,  difficult  to  overstate  the  advantage 
of  dealing  with  a  people  who  are  imbued  with  a 
thorough-going  and  an  hereditary  respect  for  reason 
and  for  moral  ideas.  A  Chinese  has  for  law,  and 
for  all  the  symbols  of  law  and  of  government,  an 
innate  and  ineradicable  reverence.  This  quality,  and 
the  fact  that  their  form  of  government  has  always 
appeared  to  them,  when  rightly  administered,  ideal, 
makes  the  Chinese,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  good 
subjects.  When  governed  upon  lines  to  which  they 
are  accustomed  and  of  which  they  approve,  they  are 
more  easily  governed  than  any  other  people,  for  in 
that  case  it  may  be  said  that  they  govern  themselves. 

In  this  connection  should  be  mentioned  the  fact 
that  the  government  of  China,  so  far  from  being  as 
is  often  supposed  an  "  absolute  monarchy,"  is  mon- 
archical in  form  only,  administered  through  numer- 


62       CHINA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY 

ous  Boards  and  Bureaux,  resting  ultimately  upon 
the  consent  of  the  people,  whom  one  of  the  most 
ancient  Classics  declares  to  be  "  the  Root,"  and  the 
agency  through  which  Heaven  speaks.  Chinese  his- 
tory, as  we  have  seen,  has  never  been  a  mere  hum- 
drum of  routine,  but  has  bristled  with  rebellions, 
because  the  people  would  not  permanently  submit 
to  maladministration.  It  is  a  popular  proverb  that 
"when  magistrates  oppress,  the  people  rebel."  In 
general  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  a  rebellion  in 
progress  somewhere  in  China  all  the  time;  but  the 
causes  are  generally  local,  and  for  lack  of  unity  and 
of  resources  the  revolts  are  often  apparently  extin- 
guished, like  fire  in  coal-bunkers,  which  may  in  real- 
ity be  smouldering  below. 

China  is  honeycombed  with  secret  societies  of  all 
sorts,  which  the  government  is  utterly  incompetent 
to  suppress,  but  which  it  now  and  again  attacks  with 
savage  fury,  sacrificing  many  lives;  after  which 
things  go  on  as  before,  the  organisation  sometimes 
merely  altering  its  name.  In  purely  local  affairs, 
the  officials  generally  take  care  not  to  interfere,  for 
in  these  matters  China  is  as  democratic  (albeit  in  a 
Chinese  way)  as  America,  and  often  much  more  so. 
If  magistrates  carry  their  oppression  too  far,  the 
opposition  may  take  the  form  of  a  boycott  (an  orig- 
inal and  an  ancient  Chinese  practice),  the  mer- 
chants closing  all  their  shops,  to  the  great  distress 
of  the  people,  whose  clamour  and  whose  threat  of 
appeal  to  a  higher  official  soon  bring  the  magistrate 


A    GREAT   RACE  63 

to  terms.  Occasionally  the  magistrate  is  forcibly 
and  bodily  carried  to  the  provincial  capital,  where 
he  is  deposited  at  the  yamen  of  the  Governor  with 
the  message :  "  We  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule 
over  us."  The  active  participants  are  banished,  but 
the  magistrate  is  removed.  On  other  occasions  his 
sedan-chair  is  smashed,  not  infrequently  his  yamen 
is  wrecked,  and  sometimes,  to  avenge  intolerable 
wrongs,  he  is  killed  with  brutal  violence.  In  these 
and  in  many  other  ways  the  Chinese  illustrate  their 
irrepressible  democracy.  The  highest  officers  in  the 
Empire  in  memorials  to  the  throne  constantly  adduce 
this  national  trait  as  an  apology  for  violence  to 
foreigners,  for  opposition  to  the  introduction  of 
steam  navigation  on  inland  waterways,  as  well  as 
opposition  to  railways  and  mines,  and  there  is  often 
much  to  justify  their  standard  plea  of  helplessness. 
The  inherent  democracy  of  China  is  inexplicable 
until  we  remember  that,  like  all  other  institutions,  it 
has  its  roots  in  the  remote  past.  Mencius  "  elab- 
orated and  amplified  the  system  of  Confucius,  and 
in  the  process  of  amplification  he  propounded  some 
doctrines  of  an  essentially  democratic  nature.  He 
taught  that  the  throne  is  based  upon  the  people's 
will,  that  in  the  presence  of  well-founded  popular 
discontent,  a  sovereign  should  abdicate;  that 
humane  government  is  the  only  way  to  power; 
that  a  revolutionary  leader  may  be  followed  by 
the  people  to  the  mitigation  of  their  hardships ;  that 
a  bad  king  may  be  dethroned  by  a  minister  who  is 


64       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

of  royal  blood,  and  even  by  one  who,  though  lacking 
this  qualification,  is  a  Sage." 

"  The  Chinese  people,"  says  Mr.  Meadows,  "  have 
no  right  of  legislation,  they  have  no  right  of  self- 
taxation,  they  have  not  the  power  of  voting  out  their 
rulers  or  of  limiting  or  stopping  their  supplies. 
They  hcwe  therefore  the  right  of  rebellion.  Rebel- 
lion is  in  China  the  old,  often  exercised,  legitimate, 
and  constitutional  means  of  stopping  arbitrary  and 
vicious  legislation  and  administration."  "  As  to 
practical  freedom,  a  Chinese  can  sell  and  hold  landed 
property  with  a  facility,  certainty,  and  security 
which  is  absolute  perfection  compared  with  English 
dealings  of  the  same  kind.  He  can  traverse  his 
country,  throughout  its  2,000  miles  of  length,  un- 
questioned by  any  official,  and  in  doing  so  can  follow 
whatever  occupation  he  pleases.  He  can  quit  his 
country  and  re-enter  it  without  passport  or  other 
hindrance."  In  general,  he  pays  no  tax  but  that  on 
land,  which  is  probably  the  lightest  in  the  world. 

Much  of  the  lack  of  "  progress  "  in  modern  China 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  while  the  foreigner  is  aggres- 
sive, the  mandarins  are  ex  officio  obstructive,  and  the 
mass  of  the  people  immovable,  so  that  the  most 
strenuous  effort  simply  produces  friction  and  heat, 
and  after  all  ends  in  inertia.  It  may  be  observed 
incidentally  that,  next  to  the  Turk,  the  Chinese  have 
most  thoroughly  systematised  the  art  of  masterly  in- 
activity. The  Tsung  Li  Yamen,  or  Chinese  Foreign 
Office  (abolished  by  the  protocol  of  1901  for  one  of 


A   GREAT   RACE  65 

a  different  pattern),  was  happily  likened  by  Dr. 
Martin  to  a  micrometer  screw,  contrived  to  diminish 
motion,  and  was  characterised  by  Lord  Salisbury  as 
merely  a  machine  to  register  the  amount  of  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  it. 

It  is  an  innate  conviction  of  the  Chinese  people 
that  work,  hard  work,  and  plenty  of  it  is  a  necessary 
condition  of  human  existence.  Never  did  any  race 
better  illustrate  the  proposition  that  "  Honest  work 
rules  the  world."  The  Chinese  individually  rises 
early  and  works  late  (with  highly  intermittent  se- 
quence) ;  at  home  and  abroad,  always  and  every- 
where, he  works.  Unlike  those  in  other  lands  who 
have  become  victims  of  social  theories,  he  does  not 
entertain  the  fallacy  that,  irrespective  of  his  merits, 
the  world  "  owes  "  him  a  living.  He  quite  appre- 
ciates the  state  of  the  labour  market,  and  unlike  some 
Western  labourers,  he  does  not  knock  off  work  as 
soon  as  he  has  something  to  spend.  Gambling  and 
opium-smoking  are  the  most  common,  although  far 
from  universal,  Chinese  vices,  which  not  infrequently 
extinguish  the  worker's  energy  in  ruinous  inaction. 
The  talent  for  industry  pervades  all  classes.  The 
life  of  the  farmer  is  one  of  hard  work.  In  the  south- 
em  part  of  the  empire,  farm-work  literally  never 
ends.  In  the  north,  the  farmer  often  takes  advan- 
tage of  the  enforced  leisure  season  to  go  off  to  great 
distances,  perhaps  pushing  a  heavy  wheelbarrow 
many  scores,  or  even  hundreds,  of  miles,  loaded  with 
some  local  product  as  cotton,  or  oil ;  returning  with 


66      CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

a  different  load  just  in  time  to  begin  again  the  heavy 
farm  work.  The  variation  of  the  fraction  of  a  cent 
in  the  price  of  grain  will  suffice  to  set  long  lines  of 
barrows  and  whole  fleets  of  junks  in  motion. 

Because  of  the  indefatigable  labour  bestowed  upon 
it,  Chinese  farming  rather  resembles  gardening  upon 
a  large  scale.  The  contrast  between  the  unkempt 
and  neglected  cotton  patches  in  India,  and  the  weed- 
less  fields  of  the  Chinese,  is  an  index  to  quite  different 
interpretations  of  man's  relation  to  Nature. 

The  merchant  class  is  not  behind  the  farmer  in  its 
willingness  to  put  forth  great  exertion  for  light  re^ 
wards.  Dealers,  small  and  large,  send  out  employees 
to  markets  and  to  fairs  with  packs  on  their  backs, 
slung  to  carrying-poles,  or  loaded  on  barrows,  start- 
ing early  and  returning  late,  after  which  an  account 
must  be  taken  of  every  separate  article,  and  prepara- 
tion made  for  an  early  departure  on  the  morrow. 
The  life  of  a  clerk  in  a  Chinese  shop  of  any  kind  is 
no  sinecure,  and  the  master  often  works  harder  than 
any  of  his  men.  There  is  much  grinding,  routine 
and  few  holidays. 

For  intellectual  toil  the  Chinese  have  a  phenom- 
enal talent.  They  are  willing  to  submit  to  years 
of  memoriter  drudgery  for  the  mere  chance  of  enter- 
ing an  examination,  where  it  is  certain  that  not  more 
than  two — or  even  one — in  an  hundred  can  pass; 
and  which,  when  they  have  passed  this  process  (ac- 
cording to  the  old  regime),  has  to  be  indefinitely 
repeated.    Perhaps  in  the  entire  history  of  the  world 


A   GREAT   RACE  67 

no  such  misapplication  of  mental  labour  is  to  be 
found  as  in  China;  yet  of  this  the  Chinese  them- 
selves have  always  remained  happily  unconscious. 

If  the  Chinese  scholar  is  obliged  to  undergo 
fatiguing  intellectual  effort  (under  which  he  often 
breaks  down  in  health),  the  life  of  an  official  hold- 
ing an  important  post  is  that  of  a  galley-slave 
chained  to  his  oar.  In  the  Chinese  system  a  single 
appointment  frequently  combines  a  variety  of  in- 
congruous functions.  The  same  man  may  hold 
several  different  posts,  many  of  the  duties  of  which 
he  must  indeed  commit  to  subordinates,  but  for  all 
of  which  he  is  responsible.  In  general,  no  Chinese 
can  hold  even  a  sinecure  office  without  much  hard 
work,  in  the  direction  at  least  of  contriving  how  not 
to  lose  it. 

,  The  Chinese  labourer  has,  v\rith  some  exceptions, 
a  steadiness,  a  sobriety,  and  likewise  an  intelligence, 
which  not  seldom  renders  him  invaluable.  He  is 
thrifty  and  economical;  yet  when  he  receives  good 
wages  he  is  a  liberal  spender  for  what  he  wants, 
which  makes  him  an  excellent  customer.  A  market 
among  the  Chinese,  once  gained,  is  said  to  be  one  of 
the  most  regular,  and  most  susceptible  of  expansion, 
of  any  in  the  world. 

The  Chinese  have  developed  China  to  the  utmost 
point  of  which  it  is  capable  without  a  more  adequate 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  worker,  and  for  this 
knowledge  they  are  now  seeking.  The  greater  part 
of  the  habitable  globe,  on  the  other  hand,  is  still  un- 


68       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY. 

developed.  Nearly  every  country  about  the  great 
Pacific  Ocean  needs  labour,  and  abundance  of  it. 
Siberia,  Alaska,  British  Columbia,  the  United  States, 
Mexico,  Central  and  South  America,  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  Borneo,  Java,  the  Philippines,  though  many 
of  them  exclude  it,  all  need  Chinese  labour,  which, 
all  things  considered,  is  the  best  in  the  world. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  is  distinguished  among  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  for  the  rectilinearity  of  his 
speech.  He  calls  a  spade  a  spade,  and  not  a  garden 
implement.  He  congratulates  himself  upon  his  di- 
rectness, which  is  often  a  synonym  for  bluntness,  and 
upon  his  sincerity,  which  is  sometimes  another  name 
for  rudeness.  Social  conventions  he  knows,  and  ob- 
serves when  he  must,  but,  like  dress-suits  and  tall 
hats,  they  are  to  be  got  rid  of  as  soon  as  possible. 
We  understand  that  diplomacy  requires  caution, 
patience,  gradual  approach,  tact,  and  suppression  of 
the  superfluous ;  but  for  diplomacy  the  Anglo-Saxon 
has  little  taste  and  less  talent.  In  this  regard  he  is 
distinctly  inferior  to  his  Italian,  Spanish,  and  French 
neighbours,  but  upon  this  inferiority  he  dwells  with 
pride. 

The  Oriental,  who  ages  ago  learned  how  best  to 
oil  the  ways  of  social  intercourse,  is  at  an  opposite 
pole.  From  his  earliest  years  he  is  accustomed  to 
forms,  for  to  him  forms  are  things.  A  Chinese  boy 
or  girl  cannot  be  said  to  have  any  "  awkward  age," 
for  they  have  been  trained  into  a  natural  grace  which 
is  at  once  our  envy  and  our  despair.     We  are  far 


A   GREAT    RACE  69 

too  apt  to  despise  codes  of  manners  which  in  our 
nervous,  bustling,  hurrying  age  are  tending  more 
and  more  to  disappear.  We  denounce  the  ceremo- 
nious Oriental  as  insincere,  because  we  fail  to  appre- 
hend the  point  of  view  of  the  Oriental.  He  is  not 
necessarily  more  "  insincere  "  than  are  we,  when  we 
subscribe  ourselves  (as  some  still  do)  "  Your  most 
obedient  servant,"  or  when  we  use  the  adjective 
"  Dear,"  to  introduce  an  angry  letter.  In  each  case 
the  other  party  comprehends  perfectly  what  is  in- 
tended. An  American  bawls  to  a  passer-by: 
"  Hello!  is  this  the  road  to  Boston?"  Whereas  a 
Chinese  would  say:  "  Great  Elder  Brother,  may  I 
borrow  your  light  to  inquire  whether  this  is  the 
imperial  highway  to  Peking?"  An  American 
street-car  conductor  is  hoarse  from  incessantly  shout- 
ing :  "  Step  lively,  lady,  step  lively ! "  We  hear 
that  under  similar  circumstances  a  Japanese  conduc- 
tor quietly  waits  for  every  passenger,  and  when  an 
intersecting  route  is  reached,  politely  inquires: 
"  Does  any  honoured  guest  desire  a  transfer  to  the 
Shimbashi  line  ?  " 

No  one  who  has  lived  for  long  in  the  East  fails 
to  recognise  that  the  Oriental  talent  for  courtesy  is 
one  of  their  rich  gifts,  which  loses  nothing  from  the 
lack  of  appreciation  of  those  who  can  neither  practise 
nor  understand  it. 

In  his  "  English  Traits,"  Emerson  speaks  appre- 
ciatively of  the  national  ability  to  bring  "  oar  to  boat 
and  salt  to  soup."     In  this  respect  the  Chinese,  who 


70       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

is  sometimes  patronisingly  referred  to  as  "the 
Anglo-Saxon  of  Asia,"  is  not  only  our  equal,  but 
often  much  more  than  our  equal.  According  to  his 
theology — or  cosmogony — Heaven,  Earth,  and  Man 
are  a  triad,  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  Man  is  the 
middle  term,  so  that  he  has  only  to  adjust  himself  to 
the  others  to  produce  perfect  equilibrium.  His 
world  is  theoretically  one  of  moral  order.  Practi- 
cally, he  finds  it  one  of  moral  disorder,  but  taking 
his  theory  as  a  working  hypothesis  he  does  with  it 
the  best  he  can. 

Nowhere  is  man  more  identified  with  his  environ- 
ment than  in  China — "  China  and  the  Chinese,"  for 
neither  would  be  the  same  without  the  other.  The 
Chinese  is  not  a  natural  inventor,  but  he  has,  as  it 
were,  stumbled  upon  some  of  the  great  facts  of  the 
universe.  The  mariner's  compass,  gunpowder  (al- 
though this  is  disputed),  and  the  art  of  printing;  the 
manufacture  of  paper,  the  weaving  of  silk,  the  best 
methods  of  irrigation,  the  thorough-going  fertilisa- 
tion of  the  soil  (the  latter  a  great  advance  upon  the 
practice  of  most  Occidental  nations),  with  scores  of 
other  discoveries,  we  must  credit  to  the  Chinese. 
For  ages  they  have  ploughed  their  land  in  the  au- 
tumn and  not  in  the  spring,  a  reform  which  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture  is  now  struggling  under 
difficulties  to  teach  the  American  farmer.  Their 
methods  of  making  lacquer,  of  ivory  and  wood  carv- 
ing, and  numerous  other  industries,  show  their  talent 
for  adaptation. 


A   GREAT    RACE  71 

In  the  province  of  Ssu-ch'uan,  in  Western  China, 
there  is  a  certain  species  of  privet  to  which  in  the 
month  of  March  excrescences  or  scales  are  found 
attached.  On  being  opened,  these  present  a  pulpy 
mass  of  minute  insects  like  flour,  which  eventually 
develop  six  legs  and  antennae.  This  is  the  white- 
wax  insect,  the  export  of  which  from  their  breeding- 
ground  to  a  region  200  miles  to  the  north,  over  a 
series  of  mountain  ranges,  was  formerly  a  much 
greater  industry  than  since  the  general  introduction 
of  kerosene  oil.  The  scales  are  made  up  into  paper 
packets,  weighing  about  sixteen  ounces.  The  army 
of  porters  travel  only  at  night,  and  at  the  resting- 
places  open  and  spread  out  their  packets  in  cool 
places.  Upon  their  arrival,  the  scales  are  tied  up  in 
a  leaf,  bound  with  a  rice  straw,  and  are  hung  close 
under  the  branches  of  the  white-wax  tree,  where  the 
males  excrete  the  wax  to  the  extent,  in  favourable 
years,  of  four  or  five  pounds  of  wax  to  a  single 
pound  of  scales.  The  excreting  process  requires 
about  an  hundred  days,  when  the  twigs  are  cut  off, 
placed  in  boiling  water,  and  the  wax  of  commerce 
is  run  into  moulds.  How  came  the  Chinese  to  learn 
how  to  adapt  themselves  to  this  singular  process  of 
nature  ?  In  the  same  province  there  are  brine  wells 
and  petroleum  wells  more  than  2,000  feet  in  depth, 
which  have  been  worked  by  ropes  made  of  split  bam- 
boo for  at  least  1,650  years. 

Mr.  Meadows  instances  the  gentle  and  cautious 
Chinese  method  of  coaxing  a  chicken  into  a  coop,  in 


72       CHINA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY 

contrast  with  our  habit  of  shouting,  chasing  with 
dogs,  and  hurHng  missiles,  as  an  example  of  superior 
civilisation  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese,  in  exhibiting 
a  better  adaptation  of  means  to  ends.  Every  travel- 
ling Chinese  tinker  with  his  tiny  charcoal  stove  and 
small  kit  of  tools,  who  with  little  copper  clamps  can 
deftly  join  broken  crockery,  and  do  any  kind  of 
metal  work  with  neatness,  is  in  a  different  line 
another  instance.  Small  Chinese  children  often  ap- 
pear quite  able  to  judge  of  the  probable  output  of  the 
family  crop,  and  are  familiar  with  the  comparative 
cost  of  everything  which  the  family  buys  or  sells. 
"  In  every  detail  of  handling  and  moving  commodi- 
ties, from  the  moment  they  leave  the  hands  of  the 
producer  in  his  garden-patch  to  the  time  when  they 
reach  the  ultimate  consumer,  perhaps  a  thousand 
miles  away,  the  Chinese  trader  is  an  expert.  Times 
and  seasons  have  been  elaborately  mapped  out,  the 
clue  laid  unerringly  through  labyrinthine  currencies, 
weights,  and  measures,  which  to  the  stranger  seem 
a  hopeless  tangle,  and  elaborate  trade  customs 
evolved  appropriate  to  the  requirements  of  a  myriad- 
sided  commerce,  until  the  simplest  operation  has  been 
invested  with  a  kind  of  ritual  observance,  the  effect 
of  the  whole  being  to  cause  the  duplex  wheels  to  run 
both  smoothly  and  swiftly." 

It  might  be  expected  that  if  an  average  Chinese 
were  suddenly  dropped  from  the  clouds  upon  an  un- 
familiar spot  of  the  earth's  surface,  he  would  make 
a  rapid  surv-ey  of  his  environment,  and  proceeding 


A   GREAT    RACE  73 

(like  the  Yankee  in  the  story  navigating  a  captured 
stranded  whale)  to  conform  to  the  new  conditions, 
would  boldly  and  successfully  face  all  competitors. 
A  Chinese  of  experience  always  has  a  contrivance  for 
every  emergency,  and  frequently  one  of  which  no 
foreigner  would  have  thought,  and  which  he  would 
not  have  known  how  to  use  if  he  had  thought  of  it. 
It  is  this  quality  which  makes  the  Chinese  invaluable 
under  strange  conditions — especially  on  long  jour- 
neys. 

In  a  way  which  often  seems  to  us  clumsy, 
they  achieve  almost  impossible  results,  as  in  trans- 
porting for  long  distances  huge  blocks  of  stone  for 
Imperial  tablets  by  webs  of  rope  attached  to  a  regi- 
ment of  horses  and  mules.  The  scaffolding  by  the 
aid  of  which  the  huge  towers  over  the  city  gates  of 
Peking — and  other  cities — are  erected,  are  them- 
selves works  of  art,  and  are  all  held  together  by  ropes 
much  more  securely  than  by  our  method  of  driving 
precarious  nails.  Many  years  ago  a  partly  built 
railway  bridge  in  Tientsin  was  abandoned,  the 
foreign  engineers  in  vain  applying  steam-power  to 
draw  out  the  piles.  When  they  had  at  last  ex- 
hausted their  energies,  the  Chinese  securely  lashed 
flat-bottomed  boats  to  the  timbers,  and  the  rising 
tide  at  once  pulled  them  out.  The  method  by  which 
nearly  twenty  years  ago  the  Yellow  River  was  in- 
duced to  resume  its  old  course  through  Shantung, 
instead  of  taking  the  short-cut  to  the  south,  was  a 
marvel  of  ingenuity,  and  was  successful  despite  the 


74       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

predictions  to  the  contrary  of  foreigners  on  the  spot, 
both  amateurs  and  experts. 

Climatically,  the  Chinese  have  no  habitat.  They 
flourish  on  the  banks  of  the  Amur,  in  the  tropics, 
and  everywhere  between.  Their  physical  vitality 
is  the  wonder  of  the  world.  But  their  intellectual 
adaptability  is  even  more  remarkable  than  their 
physical.  Their  traditional  system  of  instruction 
has  done  little  to  make  their  minds  alert,  but  much  to 
render  them  receptive.  The  faculty  of  memory, 
which  nearly  all  our  modern  systems  of  education 
either  ignore  or  decry,  but  upon  which  literally  every 
mental  acquisition  depends  for  its  value,  the  Chinese 
have  cultivated  to  an  unexampled  extent,  being  able 
to  repeat  books  verbatim  by  the  cubic  foot.  This 
gives  an  exactness  of  knowledge  to  which  most 
Americans,  at  least,  are  strangers. 

More  than  half-a-century  ago.  Dr.  Yung  Wing, 
then  a  student  at  Yale  College,  took  a  prize  for  Eng- 
lish composition.  From  that  day  to  this,  Chinese 
students  in  all  departments  of  learning — mathe- 
matics, law,  and  oratory — have  constantly  showed 
their  equality  with  the  rest,  and  not  infrequently  their 
pre-eminent  superiority  to  most.  When  the  age- 
long training  of  Chinese  in  lines  totally  unlike  West- 
em  studies  is  considered,  Chinese  adaptation  to  such 
an  intellectual  atmosphere  is  recognised  as  a  remark- 
able phenomenon. 

The  Chinese  system  of  government,  by  its  persist- 
ance  and  in  its  effects,  is  one  of  the  most  unique 


A    GREAT    RACE  75 

examples  of  organisation  to  be  found  in  human  his- 
tory. This  system  appears  the  more  theoretically 
well-balanced  the  more  it  is  considered.  It  has  all 
the  compactness  and  all  the  flexibility  of  a  well- 
bound  raft;  and  even  if  in  rapids  and  whirlpools  it 
works  loose,  it  is  soon  securely  lashed  together  again 
and  the  unending  voyage  is  resumed  as  before.  The 
democratic  local  government  exhibits  the  phenom- 
enon of  endless  variety  with  substantial  unity,  and 
essential  indestructibility.  Chinese  trade-guilds, 
like  those  in  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages — a 
period  of  history  in  which  China  may  be  said  to  have 
been  living  until  recently — display  a  sinewy  structure 
to  which  the  Western  world  affords  perhaps  no  anal- 
ogies. To  run  counter  to  their  currents  is  to  try 
conclusions  with  an  adult  iceberg. 

The  units  of  every  class  of  Chinese  society  know 
how  to  enter  into  an  effective  union  like  that  of 
chemical  atoms.  Officials  combine  with  officials 
against  officials,  and  the  resultant  is  that  composition 
of  motion  which  an  American  calls  "  practical  poli- 
tics." Scholars,  whose  rights  or  whose  dignity  have 
been  invaded  by  an  official,  collect  in  packs  and  rend 
him.  Merchants,  as  already  mentioned,  wield  the 
weapon  of  the  boycott,  the  ultimate  consequences  of 
enforcing  which  will  bring  any  official  to  bay.  Salt- 
merchants  and  pawnshop  keepers — two  licensed  and 
semi-official  lines  of  business — are  equipped  to  com- 
bat officials  who  strive  to  gratify  at  their  expense 
the  imquenchable  thirst  for  silver.    Yamen-runners, 


76       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

compradores,  middlemen  of  every  sort  and  grade,  all 
domestic  and  other  servants,  and  in  general  all  who 
do  business  for  others,  have  an  elaborate  and  com- 
plicated system  of  extracted  percentages,  which 
foreigners  call  "  squeezes."  They  resemble  the 
pressure  of  the  atmosphere,  silent,  invisible,  perhaps 
unfelt,  equally  distributed  in  all  directions,  and  in- 
evitable. 

The  great  drawback  in  the  exercise  of  the  unique 
talent  of  organisation  has  always  been  mutual  sus- 
picion, and  the  domination  of  personal,  local,  and 
class  interests  over  the  general  welfare.  There  are 
indications  that  these  serious  disabilities  are  begin- 
ning to  be  less  of  an  obstacle  to  united  action.  That 
in  the  new  China  they  will  tend  to  diminish  is  a 
moral  certainty. 

From  the  days  of  Sir  John  Davis  to  the  present 
time,  the  "  cheerful  industry  "  of  the  people  has  been 
the  most  notable  sight  in  China.  This  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  much  inarticulate  protest  in  particular 
cases,  not  against  the  system  under  which  they  live, 
but  against  the  lot  of  the  special  individual.  In  the 
past,  the  Chinese  army  has  been  largely  recruited 
from  malcontents  and  runaways.  It  is  true  that 
Chinese  men,  women,  and  girls  commit  suicide  on 
slight  provocation  for  revenge  or  in  despair.  Yet 
these  absolutely  numerous  cases  are  relatively  few. 
The  Chinese  are  unconscious  fatalists.  In  the  midst 
of  surroundings  which  appear  to  Occidentals  to  offer 
nothing  to  make  life  happy,  or  even  tolerable,  they 


A   GREAT   RACE  yj 

move  serenely  on,  without  haste  and  without  pause. 
Chinese  content  is  often  erroneously  supposed  to  be 
based  upon  ignorance.  Yet  countless  myriads  hear 
without  a  sigh  of  other  lands  where  wages  are  high 
and  life  more  attractive  than  at  home.  The  ills  of 
their  lives  are  accepted  as  we  put  up  with  our  climate. 
It  may  be  bad,  but  I  cannot  help  it,  neither  can  any 
one  else,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it.  The  impact  of 
Occidental  civilisation  is  perpetually  introducing  into 
China,  if  not  a  "  divine  discontent,"  at  least  a  pro- 
found dissatisfaction  with  things  as  they  are.  But 
as  yet  this  affects  but  a  microscopic  fraction  of  the 
population.  The  remainder,  whatever  may  befall, 
will  doubtless  continue  to  exercise  their  phenomenal 
faculty  not  only  for  taking  things  as  they  come,  but, 
what  is  much  more  difficult,  for  parting  with  them  as 
they  go,  and  in  each  case  with  that  equanimity  of 
spirit  which  we  call  "  content." 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  perpetual  existence 
of  the  Chinese  people  is  an  illustration  of  this  gift. 
It  is  a  gigantic  instance  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Their  physical  constitution  enables  them  to  live  on 
coarse  food,  often  in  insufficient  quantities,  and  yet 
to  thrive.  They  can  endure  cold,  heat,  fatigue, 
hunger,  and  the  loss  of  sleep.  Their  moral  ideals 
have  been  higher  than  those  of  any  other  non- 
Christian  nation,  and  of  this  fact  they  have  con- 
sciously reaped  the  benefit  in  a  solidity  and  a  rotund- 
ity of  character  not  elsewhere  to  be  found  in  Asia. 
They  are  not  lightly  attracted  to  an  alien  faith,  but 


78       CHINA   AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY 

modern  times  have  produced  no  more  patient,  heroic, 
and  devoted  martyrs  than  the  Chinese. 

We  may  conclude  with  a  quotation  from  Sir 
Robert  Hart,  who  wrote  shortly  after  the  relief  of 
Peking,  where  he,  for  nearly  half-a-century  an 
honoured  and  trusted  high  official  of  the  Chinese 
Government,  with  many  others,  was  threatened  with 
massacre  by  Boxers  and  by  Imperial  troops  under 
the  immediate  sanction  of  the  Throne :  "  It  must  be 
freely  allowed  that  the  Chinese  possess  quite  as  large 
a  share  of  admirable  qualities  as  others,  and  that 
these  are  not  merely  to  be  found  in  isolated  cases 
here  and  there,  but  are  characteristic  of  the  race  as 
a  whole  and  the  civilisation  it  has  developed.  They 
are  well-behaved,  intelligent,  economical,  and  indus- 
trious; they  can  learn  anything  and  do  anything; 
they  are  punctiliously  polite;  they  worship  talent, 
and  they  believe  in  right  so  firmly  that  they  scorn 
to  think  it  requires  to  be  supported  or  enforced  by 
might;  they  delight  in  literature,  and  everywhere 
they  have  their  literary  clubs  and  coteries  for  hear- 
ing and  discussing  each  other's  essays  and  verses; 
they  possess  and  practise  an  admirable  system  of 
ethics,  and  they  are  generous,  charitable,  and  fond  of 
good  works;  they  never  forget  a  favour  and  they 
make  rich  returns  for  any  kindness ;  and  though  they 
know  money  will  buy  service,  a  man  must  be  more 
than  wealthy  to  win  public  esteem  and  respect ;  they 
are  practical,  teachable,  and  wonderfully  gifted  with 
common-sense;  they  are  excellent  artisans,  relia- 


A    GREAT   RACE  79 

ble  workmen,  and  of  a  good  faith  that  everyone 
acknowledges  and  admires  in  their  commercial  deal- 
ings. In  no  country  that  is  or  was  has  the  com- 
mandment *  honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother  *  been 
so  religiously  obeyed  as  it  is  among  the  Chinese,  or 
so  fully  and  without  exception  given  effect  to,  and 
it  is  in  fact  the  keynote  of  their  family,  social,  offi- 
cial, and  national  life,  and  because  it  is  so  their  days 
are  long  in  the  land  God  has  given  them." 

The  foregoing  pages  may  be  taken  as  an  imperfect 
summary  of  a  few  great  race-traits — a  sketch  in 
charcoal  far  enough  from  completeness.  Here,  then, 
we  have  one  of  the  remarkable  races  in  the  history  of 
mankind.  Perhaps  the  twentieth  century  may  have 
no  larger  issue  than  the  consideration  of  what  is  to 
be  the  relation  between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
Chinese  peoples. 


V 

THE  BRASS  DISH   AND  THE   IRON   BRUSH 

The  beginnings  of  the  relations  between  the  Occi- 
dent and  China  are  lost  in  the  mists  of  antiquity,  but 
there  is  adequate  evidence  that  perhaps  as  early  as 
the  opening  of  the  second  century  b.  c.  "  a  commerce 
of  appreciable  magnitude  existed  between  the  Roman 
Empire  and  Northern  China,  silk,  iron,  and  furs 
being  carried  westward,  while  glassware,  woven 
stuffs,  embroideries,  drugs,  metals,  asbestos,  and 
gems  were  sent  to  China.  Syria — or  *  Ta  Ts'in  * 
[or  Ch'in] ,  as  the  Chinese  called  it — was  the  origin 
of  this  commerce,  and  Parthia  was  the  half-way 
house,  the  transport  being  entirely  overland."  * 

These  land  routes  were  extremely  difficult.  "  At 
the  north  the  Ural  Mountains  interposed  an  almost 
impassable  barrier,  in  the  central  region  a  great 
desert  stretched  almost  continuously  from  the 
Mediterranean  to  India  and  China,  and  threatened 
the  lives  of  men  and  animals  which  invaded  it.  At 
the  south  of  that  desert  was  that  impassable  mass  of 
mountains  known  as  *  The  Roof  of  the  World,' — ^the 
Himalayas."  On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  is  said 
that   "  the   topographical   conditions   along   trans- 

1 "  Japan  and  China,"  by  Capt.  F.  Brinkley,  vol  x.,  pp.  134 
and  138-9- 

80 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH      8l 

Asian  routes  to  North  China  were  very  different 
two  thousand  years  ago  from  what  they  are  to-day. 
.  .  .  Excavations  now  in  progress  tend  to  prove  that 
a  high  state  of  culture  existed  among  the  people, 
that  the  art  influences  of  Greece  and  Rome  were  felt 
there,  that  Buddhism  was  the  religion  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  that  they  derived  their  civilisation  from 
India.  But  owing,  apparently  to  insufficient  irriga- 
tion, the  towns  and  villages  were  gradually  buried 
under  advancing  sands,  just  as  in  the  case  of  Egypt, 
and  where  gardens,  avenues,  and  orchards  once 
existed,  there  is  now  only  a  waste."  ^ 

The  conquests  of  Alexander  the  Gieat  gave  a 
great  impulse  to  overland  trade  with  China.  The 
consolidation  of  the  empire  of  the  Western  world 
under  the  Romans  continued  and  expanded  it.  In 
the  year  i66  a.  d.,  Marcus  Aurelius  sent  a  mission  to 
China  through  Burmah  and  Yunnan,  the  Parthians 
monopolising  and  blocking  the  land  route,  and  "  thus 
it  fell  out,  toward  the  close  of  the  second  century,  a. 
D.,  that  ships  began  for  the  first  time  to  reach  Canton, 
and  commerce  was  partly  deflected  to  the  ocean  path 
in  the  south  from  the  trans-Asian  routes  to  the 
north." 

In  the  last  quarter  of  the  fifth  century,  the  Turks 
on  the  northern  frontier  of  China  bought  silk  and  tea 
in  exchange  for  articles  of  iron.     In  the  seventh 

2 "  The  Commercial  Prize  of  the  Orient,"  a  paper  in  the 
National  Geographical  Magazine,  Sept.,  1905,  by  Hon.  O.  P. 
Austin,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics. 


82       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

century  Arab  traders  from  Java,  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula, and  Indo-China  opened  factories  in  various 
places  between  Persia  and  the  Far  East,  as  well  as 
at  Canton,  which  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century 
was  a  small  place  surrounded  by  aborigines.  This 
is  thought  to  be  the  first  instance  of  foreigners  set- 
tling in  China  for  commercial  purposes.  We  now 
come  to  an  entirely  different  set  of  phenomena. 

The  discovery  of  America  by  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  soon 
followed  by  the  knowledge  of  two  water-routes  to 
the  Far  East,  one  of  them  around  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  through  the  Indian  Ocean,  exploited  by  the 
Portuguese,  the  other  around  Cape  Horn  and  across 
the  Pacific,  which  was  pre-empted  by  the  Span- 
iards. 

Within  less  than  twenty  years  of  the  first  voyage 
of  the  great  Genoese,  the  Portuguese  had  reached 
Malacca  (a  tributary  of  China)  and  five  years  later 
(in  1 516),  almost  four  centuries  ago,  they  arrived 
at  Canton.  They  established  "  factories,"  or  trad- 
ing establishments  at  Ningpo  in  the  Chekiang  prov- 
ince and  at  Ch'uan  Chou  (or  Chin  Chou),  in 
Fukien ;  but  their  conduct  was  marked  by  such  ex- 
treme lawlessness  that  in  the  former  place  the 
Chinese  people  rose  against  them  en  masse,  attack- 
ing the  Portuguese  colony,  "  destroying  twelve 
thousand  Christians,  inclusive  of  800  Chinese,  and 
burning  thirty-five  ships  and  two  junks."  The 
Special  acts  of  the  Portuguese  to  which  the  Chinese 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH      83 

took  exception,  were  not  merely  infesting  the  coast 
as  pirates  from  Ningpo  to  Ch'uan  Chou,  but  making 
a  raid  on  the  tombs  of  some  "  Chinese  Kings  "  in 
the  neighbourhood,  with  a  view  to  rifling  them,  and 
sallying  out  into  neighbouring  villages  to  kidnap 
Chinese  women  and  girls.  This  expulsion  happened 
in  1545,  and,  four  years  later,  a  like  event  happened 
at  Ch'uan  Chou,  "  and  thus,  by  conduct  of  which, 
had  the  Chinese  themselves  been  guilty  of  it,  no 
condemnation  would  have  been  found  too  strong, 
the  Portuguese  permanently  lost  their  footing  on 
the  mainland."  Their  first  occupation  of  the  small 
tongue  of  land,  known  as  Macao,  was  gained  by  a 
deception,  for,  pretending  that  "  certain  goods 
falsely  represented  as  tribute,  had  been  injured  in 
a  storm  and  must  be  dried,  they  obtained  permission 
to  erect  sheds  at  Macao  for  that  purpose,  and  sub- 
sequently remained  as  tenants  of  the  place  on  pay- 
ment of  five  hundred  ounces  of  silver."  Unable  to 
expel  them,  the  Chinese,  in  self-defence,  subse- 
quently deliminated  Macao  from  the  mainland  by 
putting  up  a  stone  wall. 

The  next  European  comers  were  the  Spaniards, 
who,  having  seized  the  Philippine  Islands  (1543), 
became  suspicious  of  the  Chinese,  and  perpetrated  an 
indiscriminate  massacre,  during  a  period  of  several 
days,  of  all  the  Chinese  on  the  islands.  Many  thou- 
sands were  either  put  to  the  sword  or  sent  to  the 
galleys.  This  proceeding  was  repeated  nearly  sixty 
years  later,  when  it  was  feared  that  the  Chinese 


84       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

settlers  would  ally  themselves  with  a  dreaded  pirate 
known  as  Koxinga. 

Following  the  Portuguese  and  the  Spaniards, 
came  the  Dutch,  who  signalised  their  advent  by  at- 
tacking indiscriminately  both  Portuguese  and 
Spaniards.  "They  asailed  Macao  [1622]  with 
seventeen  ships,  but  being  repulsed  went  to  the 
Pescadore  Islands,  which  they  occupied  [1624]," 
building  a  fort  there  and  forcing  the  Chinese  to  la- 
bour for  them.  There  was  no  quarrel  between  China 
and  Holland.  The  two  countries  were  complete 
strangers  to  each  other.  Thus  their  acquaintance 
opened  first  with  an  armed  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
Dutch  to  drive  the  Portuguese  from  a  place  in  China 
which  the  latter  had  leased  to  them,  and,  secondly, 
with  the  forceful  seizure  of  another  place  in  China's 
territory,  though  no  state  of  war  existed  or  even 
any  cause  of  quarrel.  In  short,  the  Dutch  intro- 
duced themselves  to  the  Chinese  in  the  guise  of  in- 
ternational freebooters."  ^ 

The  Chinese  finding  the  lawless  raids  of  the  Dutch 
on  the  coast  inconvenient,  cleverly  contrived  to  per- 
suade them  to  evacuate  the  Pescadores,  and  to  re- 
move to  Formosa,  a  large  island  opposite  the  Fukien 
province,  which  the  Chinese  had  never  occupied  and 
to  which  they  had,  therefore,  no  claim.  Harried  by 
the  enterprising  Chinese  military  force,  to  Formosa 
the  Dutch  went,  where  they  later  put  a  stop  to  the 
promising  work  of  converting  the  natives  to  Chris- 

3 "  Japan  and  China,"  vol.  x.,  p.  180. 


BRASS    DISH   AND    IRON    BRUSH      85 

tianlty,  lest  their  trade  with  Japan  should  be  jeop- 
arded— that  empire  having  expelled  the  Christians. 
At  the  end  of  a  siege  of  nine  months,  and  with  the 
loss  of  1,600  men,  the  Dutch  after  twenty-eight  years 
of  rule  were  permanently  driven  out  of  Formosa 
by  the  pirate  Koxinga.  In  1665,  and  again  in 
1795-6,  they  sent  embassies  to  Peking,  on  each  of 
which  occasions  they  performed  the  "  three  kneelings 
and  the  nine  head-knockings  "  to  an  empty  throne, 
in  the  role  of  tribute-bearers.  Dr.  Williams  briefly 
summarises  De  Guig^es'  account  of  their  last  journey 
to  Peking,  where  the  Emperor's  "  hauteur  was  a  be- 
fitting foil  to  their  servility,  at  once  exhibiting  both 
his  pride  and  their  ignorance  of  their  true  position 
and  rights.  They  were  brought  to  the  capital  like 
malefactors,  treated  when  there  like  beggars,  and 
then  sent  back  to  Canton  like  mountebanks  to  per- 
form the  three-times-three  prostration  at  all  times 
and  before  everything  their  conductors  saw  fit; 
while  the  latter,  on  their  part,  stood  by  and  laughed 
at  their  embarrassment  in  making  these  evolutions 
in  tight  clothes.  They  were  not  allowed  a  single 
opportunity  to  speak  about  business,  which  the 
Chinese  never  associate  with  an  embassy.  .  .  .  Van 
Braam's  account  of  this  embassy  is  one  of  the  most 
humiliating  records  of  ill-requited  obsequiousness 
before  insolent  government  lackeys  which  any 
European  was  ever  called  upon  to  pen.  The  mis- 
sion returned  to  Canton  in  April,  1796,  having  at- 
tained no  more  noble  end  than  that  of  saluting  the 


86       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

Emperor,  and  this,  indeed,  was  all  the  Chinese  meant 
should  be  done,  when  themselves  suggesting  the  en- 
tire performance;  for,  in  order  to  understand  much 
of  their  conduct  toward  their  guests,  the  feelings 
they  entertained  toward  them  must  not  be  lost  sight 
of."  In  the  year  1839  the  Dutch  issued  an  inter- 
dict against  the  admission  of  Chinese  settlers  to  any 
of  the  Dutch-Indian  colonies,  since  the  skill  of  the 
immigrants  threatened  to  engross  the  labour  market. 
"  It  was  left,"  as  Captain  Brinkley  remarks,  "  for 
the  Dutch  to  practise  exclusiveness  against  others 
while  claiming  liberality  for  themselves.  Other 
nations,  however,  are  not  ashamed  to  follow  in  the 
same  course  even  in  the  twentieth  century." 

The  first  foreign  treaty  which  the  Chinese  ever 
concluded  was  that  of  Nerchinsk  with  Russia  in 
1689,  by  which  that  power  was  compelled  to  retire 
from  territory  which  she  had  held  for  eight  and 
thirty  years.  Yet  despite  this  rebuff,  and  notwith- 
standing the  long  conterminous  frontier  of  Russia 
and  China,  these  countries  contrived  for  more  than 
two  centuries  to  get  on  without  any  of  those  hostili- 
ties experienced  in  the  case  of  every  other  nation. 
The  process  of  stealthy  absorption  of  Chinese  ter- 
ritory, euphemistically  termed  "  painless  identifica- 
tion," which  went  on  unimpeded  for  nearly  half-a- 
century,  was  in  1905  abruptly  checked  by  the 
decisive  victory  of  Japan  in  the  Tsushima  Straits. 

The  English  introduced  themselves  to  China  long 
after  the  Continentals    (1637),  t)^^  were  bitterly 


BRASS    DISH    AND    IRON    BRUSH      87 

antagonised  by  the  Portuguese,  who  represented 
them  to  the  Chinese  as  "  rogues,  thieves,  and  beg- 
gars." In  consequence  of  this  the  Chinese  forts 
fired  upon  the  EngHsh  ships,  by  whom  the  fire  was 
furiously  returned  for  two  or  three  hours,  when  the 
fort  was  taken,  and  the  English  colours  displayed. 
A  letter  was  then  despatched  to  the  officials  at  Can- 
ton remonstrating  against  the  attack,  explaining  the 
capture  of  the  fort,  and  asking  for  liberty  of  trade. 

With  these  preliminary  amenities,  English  com- 
merce with  China  was  opened.  As  the  Ming 
dynasty  was  then  tottering  to  its  fall,  nothing  further 
was  attempted  in  the  way  of  trade  until  1664,  when 
the  effort  came  to  naught  through  the  jealousy  of 
the  Portuguese,  who  never  lost  an  opportunity  of 
misrepresenting  to  the  Chinese  the  character  and 
designs  of  the  English.  In  1670,  the  English  were 
successful  in  making  a  treaty  with  the  ex-pirate 
Koxinga,  who  ruled  Formosa.  "  This,  the  first 
commercial  convention  concluded  by  a  European 
power  with  a  Chinese  potentate,  is  specially  inter- 
esting because  of  its  explicit  provision  on  the  subject 
of  jurisdiction.  The  extra-territoriality  principle 
received  clear  recognition,  the  *  King '  undertaking 
to  punish  all  wrongs  or  injuries  done  by  his  subjects 
to  the  British,  and  the  latter  undertaking  a  similar 
duty  of  redress  in  the  case  of  Formosans." 

The  bold,  adventurous  spirits  who  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  navigated  European  vessels  to  the 
Far  East,  were  men  cast  in  rough  mould,  with  but 


88       CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

scanty  traces  of  the  suaviter  in  modo,  and  with  an 
exuberant  over-supply  of  the  fortiter  in  re.  French 
and  English  sailors  fought  each  other  in  the  Canton 
river,  until,  to  keep  them  as  much  as  possible  apart, 
the  Chinese  had  to  assign  them  different  islands  as 
places  of  recreation.  Ships  of  different  European 
nationalities  repeatedly  attacked  one  another  in 
Chinese  waters,  and  the  Chinese,  who  never  heard  of 
international  law,  yet  recognised  the  fact  that  this 
was  a  breach  of  decorum.  In  1814,  during  the  war 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  a 
British  frigate,  totally  disregarding  Chinese  rights, 
cruised  off  Canton  to  seize  American  vessels,  block- 
ading some,  capturing  one  and  taking  her  into  port, 
and,  chasing  another  to  the  vicinity  of  Canton,  took 
her,  upon  which  the  Americans  in  turn  armed  their 
boats  and  retook  her.  The  Chinese  tried  to  get  the 
representative  of  the  East  India  Company  to  send 
away  the  disturbing  vessel,  which  he  professed  him- 
self unable  to  do,  upon  which  the  Chinese  employed 
the  only  means  open  to  them :  preventing  the  employ- 
ment of  native  servants  and  stopping  the  cargo- 
boats.  "  The  whole  story  is  a  string  of  paradoxes, 
— ^the  river  at  Canton  converted  into  an  arena  of 
belligerent  operations  by  British  and  American 
ships;  the  Chinese  remonstrating  against  such  a 
flagrant  disregard  of  international  law,  and  being 
placidly  told  that  it  could  not  be  cured  and  must  be 
endured ;  their  attempts  to  assert  their  national  rights 
by  hampering  trade ;  the  foreign  merchants  retaliat- 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH      89 

ing  by  stopping  the  trade  altogether ;  and  finally  the 
Chinese,  who  were  the  wronged  party  throughout, 
being  compelled  to  make  many  concessions  in  order 
that  the  foreigner  might  consent  to  resume  the  busi- 
ness which  alone  held  him  in  Canton." 

In  England  great  interest  was  felt  in  the  expensive 
and  spectacular  embassy  of  Lord  Macartney  to 
Peking  (1792-3),  which  cost  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment $850,000  for  its  entertainment.  But  it  was  a 
mere  exchange  of  courtesies  and  did  no  business,  the 
net  result  being  a  formal  letter  from  the  aged  Em- 
peror Ch'ien  Lung  to  the  King,  informing  him  that 
hereafter  trade  must  be  strictly  limited  to  Canton. 
The  later  mission  of  Lord  Amherst,  in  1816,  was 
even  less  successful,  being  peremptorily  sent  away, 
because  the  ambassador  refused  to  go  in  unprepared 
to  a  sudden  audience  with  the  Emperor.  It  is 
thought  that  the  Chinese  Government  was  alarmed 
and  offended  by  England's  expansion  in  India,  where 
"  she  had  just  won  victories  in  regions  overrun 
twenty-four  years  previously  by  the  troops  of  the 
Middle  Kingdom."  The  expense  of  this  embassy 
is  supposed  to  have  been  fully  as  great  as  the  pre- 
vious one,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  it  had  no  suc- 
cessors. It  is  instructive  to  hear  that  when  Lord 
Amherst  reached  Canton,  on  his  return  journey,  "  he 
found  that  the  British  frigate  Alceste,  which  was  to 
carry  him  home,  had  been  occupied  in  firing  on  the 
Chinese  flotilla  and  bombarding  the  Chinese  forts 
during  his  absence  in  the  interior."     The  frigate  had 


90       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

been  assigned  to  a  berth  lower  down  the  river  than 
her  commander  thought  suitable,  upon  which  he 
moved  leisurely  up  the  river,  and  being  fired  upon, 
silenced  the  war-junks  and  drove  the  garrison  from 
the  forts. 

It  is  difficult  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury to  comprehend  the  anomalous  conditions  pre- 
vailing in  Chinese  waters  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  A  large  number  of  vessels  from 
many  countries  had  come,  all  bent  on  trade.  The 
Chinese  have  always  had  a  commercial  instinct  in 
no  way  inferior  to  that  of  the  Greek  and  the  Jew. 
The  foreign  commerce  was  profitable  to  both  sides. 
The  Manchus,  however,  who  had  come  into  the 
magnificent  heritage  of  the  Chinese  Empire  with 
comparatively  little  effort,  never  forgot  that  they 
were  themselves  aliens,  and  felt  an  instinctive  and 
not  unnatural  jealousy  of  the  unknown  strangers 
from  foreign  lands,  whose  future  relations  with  the 
Chinese  subjects  might  lead  to  serious  complications. 
K'ang  Hsi  (1662-1723)  and  his  grandson,  Ch'ien 
Lung  (1736- 1 796),  were  two  of  the  ablest  monarchs 
who  had  governed  China  for  a  thousand  years. 
Under  their  rule — especially  that  of  the  latter — as 
we  have  already  mentioned,  the  bounds  of  the 
Chinese  dominions  had  been  greatly  extended.  Is 
it  strange  that  the  Manchus  had  no  intention  of  risk- 
ing the  security  of  their  hold  upon  this  great  empire 
for  the  sake  of  a  trade  which  they  probably  regarded 
with  comparative  indifference,  if  not  with  absolute 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH      91 

dislike  ?  How  could  they  know  what  would  happen 
when  the  Western  barbarian  once  got  a  footing  on 
Chinese  soil?  If  he  could  not  be  kept  out  alto- 
gether, as  they  desired,  he  could  at  least  be  penned 
up  in  the  "  factories  "  at  Canton,  upon  a  piece  of 
ground  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length,  with  a 
promenade  an  hundred  yards  by  fifty,  occupied  by 
barbers,  fortune-tellers,  and  idlers. 

The  Chinese,  who  have  always  been  amenable  to 
the  most  dangerous  of  all  flattery,  the  inferiority  of 
what  was  about  them,  entertained  as  it  were  ex 
ofddo  an  unquestioning  conviction  of  their  own  su- 
periority to  all  mankind.  To  this  feeling  the 
Manchu,  who  certainly  had  no  claims  to  it  on  his 
own  account,  was  by  a  simple  syllogism  the  heir. 
The  Chinese  had  always  been  the  foremost  race 
under  Heaven.  The  Manchus  had  recently  demon- 
strated their  superiority  to  the  Chinese.  Therefore, 
the  Manchu  was  the  Top-piece  and  Lord  of  All-un- 
der-Heaven.  For  this  reason,  it  was  the  Manchu 
cue  not  merely  to  discountenance  foreig^n  inter- 
course and  trade,  but  to  indulge  in  these  extravagant 
assumptions  of  pre-eminence  by  making  "  a  striking 
show  of  overlordship  in  their  dealings  with  every 
foreign  nation,  in  order  to  produce  a  wholesome  im- 
pression on  the  minds  of  their  Chinese  subjects." 

The  view  of  the  Chinese  and  the  Manchus  as  to 
their  status  among  the  peoples  of  the  earth  was 
handsomely  matched  by  that  of  the  foreigners  com- 
ing to  China,  who  regarded  the  Chinese  with  open 


92       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

contempt.  They  knew  nothing  of  the  language,  and 
cared  less  than  they  knew.  An  enterprising  Eng- 
lishman, the  first  to  learn  Chinese,  had  the  boldness 
to  travel  from  Canton  to  Peking  (communication 
being  denied  him  at  Ningpo)  to  lay  a  complaint 
against  the  exactions  of  the  "  Hoppo  "  of  Canton. 
As  a  net  result,  his  Chinese  amanuensis,  for  giving 
assistance  to  an  alien,  was  beheaded;  the  official 
complained  of  was  degraded  and  the  fees  were  re- 
duced; and  the  enterprising  linguist  was  himself 
banished  from  China,  in  view  of  which  it  is  not 
perhaps  singular  that  the  study  of  the  language 
never  attained  popularity. 

The  foreign  communities  in  China  were  a  law 
unto  themselves,  living,  in  the  felicitous  phrase  of 
Dr.  Williams,  in  a  state  of  nature.  A  British  wit- 
ness examined  by  a  parliamentary  committee  at  a 
later  date,  frankly  testified :  "  We  never  paid  any 
attention  to  any  law  of  China,  that  I  recollect." 
Despite  Imperial  prohibitions,  constant  efforts  were 
made  by  the  merchants  to  extend  the  area  of  their 
trade,  but  the  officials,  acting  under  orders  from 
Peking,  always  thwarted  them.  To  act  as  inter- 
mediaries between  the  officials  and  the  foreign  mer- 
chants the  Chinese  Government  appointed  a  body  of 
Chinese  merchants  who  were  responsible  for  collect- 
ing the  foreign  dues,  for  the  transactions  of  each 
supercargo,  and  for  the  behaviour  of  the  crew  while 
in  port.  This  was  the  famous  "  co-hong,"  an  emi- 
nently Chinese  contrivance,  which,  while  not  free 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON   BRUSH      93 

from  serious  embarrassments  and  abuses,  was  prob- 
ably the  only  practicable  method  of  attaining  the  end 
in  view. 

It  was  only  when  a  foreigner  had  killed  a  Chinese 
that  the  Chinese  Government  interfered  and  de- 
manded the  surrender  of  the  accused.  Portuguese, 
English,  and  Americans,  each  in  turn,  complied 
with  this  requirement.  In  182 1,  an  American 
sailor  named  Terranova,  who  had  inadvertently 
dropped  a  dish  on  the  head  of  a  boatwoman,  was 
suffered  to  be  dragged  from  his  ship  and  taken  into 
the  city  for  "  trial,"  where  he  was  publicly  strangled 
at  the  execution  ground.  The  next  day  his  body  was 
returned  and  the  trade  was  resumed.  A  radical 
difficulty  from  the  beginning  was  the  absence  of  any 
foreign  authority  to  deal  with  foreigners.  In  this 
particular  case,  it  is  a  disgraceful  fact  that  no 
notice  of  the  affair  was  taken,  and  no  remonstrance 
offered  against  the  injustice  suffered,  but  the  Amer- 
ican Government,  as  Dr.  Williams  remarks,  "  still 
left  the  commerce,  lives,  and  property  of  its  citizens 
wholly  unprotected  at  the  mercy  of  Chinese  laws 
and  rulers." 

The  local  Chinese  authorities  always  made  a  rich 
harvest  out  of  the  trade,  and  save  in  great  emer- 
gencies were  most  reluctant  to  stop  it.  When  their 
extortions  were  unusually  onerous,  the  British  mer- 
chants, on  their  part,  sometimes  adopted  Chinese 
tactics,  and  took  themselves  off  to  seek  other 
markets,   but  with  slight  success.     Much   of   the 


94       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

early  European  intercourse  with  China  was  thor- 
oughly discreditable,  whether  regarded  from  the 
point  of  international  interests,  of  international  law, 
or  of  common  sense.  "  There  was  no  such  person 
as  a  consul ;  no  such  thing  as  a  convention ;  no  such 
thing  as  a  recognised  division  of  jurisdiction;  no 
such  thing  as  a  mutual  agreement  about  the  mode 
of  doing  business;  no  such  thing  as  a  fixed  tariff, 
or  harbour  regulations,  or  police.  Each  side  had 
to  be  guided  by  its  own  instincts." 

When  the  accumulation  of  differences  had  made 
a  friendly  settlement  impossible,  Lord  Napier,  irri- 
tated by  the  studied  superciliousness  of  the  Gover- 
nor-General, referred  to  him  in  a  despatch  to  the 
British  Government  as  "  a  presumptuous  savage," 
who  was  guilty  of  "  base  conduct,"  and  who  cared 
nothing  for  commerce  "  so  long  as  he  received  his 
pay  and  his  plunder."  In  addition  to  this,  he  pub- 
lished a  document  in  Chinese  for  the  edification  of 
those  under  the  rule  of  H.  E.  the  Governor-General, 
charging  him  with  "  ignorance  and  obstinacy." 
One  may  well  agree  with  Captain  Brinkley,  from 
whom  this  incident  is  quoted,  that  "  it  might  be  dif- 
ficult, as  between  the  two  dignitaries,  to  award  in 
this  particular  instance  the  palm  of  civilised  cour- 
tesy and  prudence." 

Although  opium  has  been  known  to  the  Chinese 
for  a  thousand  years,  it  was  not  until  the  early  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century  that  it  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  Chinese  Government,  which  in  the 


BRASS    DISH   AND    IRON    BRUSH      95 

year  1729  issued  a  drastic  decree  punishing  the 
seller  with  the  cangue  (a  heavy  wooden  collar)  and 
with  banishment,  and  the  keeper  of  an  opium  den 
with  imprisonment  and  strangulation.  All  having 
complicity  in  the  sale,  transportation,  or  import  of 
the  drug  were  likewise  liable  to  severe  penalties. 

To  what  extent  this  edict  was  enforced  is  not 
known,  but  the  opium  trade  went  on  as  before  under 
the  name  of  "  foreign  medicine."  In  1781,  the  East 
India  Company  took  charge  of  the  opium  produc- 
tion in  India  (although  after  the  close  of  that  cen- 
tury it  was  not  imported  into  China  in  their  ships). 
Despite  its  liability  to  the  severest  penalties,  the 
opium  trade  was  carried  on  in  British,  American, 
and  in  Portuguese  vessels,  the  officials  being  corrupt 
and  the  profits  great.  When  the  spread  of  the  vice 
of  smoking  evoked  a  new  Imperial  edict  against  it, 
the  only  result  was  a  great  increase  of  smuggling, 
and  the  occupation  by  British  smugglers  of  a  small 
island,  called  Lintin,  lying  between  Macao  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Canton  river,  which  became  not  only 
a  headquarters  of  smugglers,  but  at  times  the  resi- 
dence of  the  British  Superintendent  of  Trade.  The 
proceeds  of  the  illicit  sales  were  shared  by  all  the 
Chinese  officials  concerned,  from  the  highest  down. 
Without  entering  into  the  details  of  this  sinister 
trade,  it  may  be  said  in  a  word  that  when  a  High 
Commissioner  named  Lin  arrived  at  Canton 
(March,  1839),  demanding  that  all  opium  be  sur- 
rendered to  him,  and  that  bonds  be  given  that  no 


96       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

more  should  be  imported,  a  decisive  crisis  in  British 
(and  all  other)  trade  with  China  had  been  reached. 
The  ensuing  war  between  Great  Britain  and  China 
was  a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  China,  of  the 
Far  East,  and  in  some  measure  of  the  world.  The 
matured  judgment  of  one  of  the  latest  commentators 
on  these  events  will  be  of  interest  to  the  reader  as 
a  temperate  statement  of  the  existing  conditions. 
"  When  the  above  facts  are  reviewed,  it  becomes 
plain  that  this  conflict,  the  first  open  war  between 
China  and  a  European  Power,  had  its  remote  origin, 
primarily,  in  Great  Britain's  failure  to  organise  any 
machinery  for  the  control  of  her  nation's  trading  in 
China,  and,  secondarily,  in  her  objection  to  their 
control  by  Chinese  machinery;  and  had  its  proxi- 
mate cause  in  an  ill-judged  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  Chinese  to  terminate  by  hasty  and  heroic 
measures  a  trade  which  had  attained  large  dimen- 
sions through  the  corrupt  connivance  of  her  own 
officials.  Morally,  the  Chinese  were  altogether  in 
the  right;  tactically,  they  blundered.  No  nation 
ever  entered  the  lists  with  better  warrant,  if  the  se- 
quence of  incidents  alone  be  considered. 

"  The  British  Government  itself,  when  it  essayed 
to  state  its  cause  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion,  could 
not  find  more  plausible  counts  than  that  its  subjects 
had  been  insulted  and  injured;  that  its  merchants 
had  sustained  loss,  and  that  trade  relations  must  be 
secured  against  such  disturbance.  Many  apologists 
contended  that  the  radical  trouble  lay  in  China's 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH      97 

arrogant  assumption  of  superiority  to  all  outside 
nations,  and  her  refusal  to  associate  with  them  on 
equal  terms.  As  to  that,  it  must  be  observed  that 
the  pettiest  Occidental  nation  has  always  claimed  to 
be  immeasurably  superior  to  China,  and  has  always 
refused  to  associate  with  her  on  equal  terms.  Her 
pretensions  are  paralleled  and  surpassed  by  those  of 
the  people  that  condemn  them  most  loudly.  Every 
European  and  every  American  openly  asserts  his 
racial  eminence  above  the  Chinese,  and  to  class  him 
with  them  would  be  an  unforgivable  insult.  It  was 
not  because  China  set  herself  above  Great  Britain 
that  the  latter  failed  to  provide  means  for  the  due 
control  of  her  subjects  trading  within  the  former's 
territories.  It  was  because  in  China's  case  Great 
Britain  acknowledged  no  obligation  to  conform  with 
international  usages,  never  neglected  in  the  Occi- 
dent. Neither  was  it  because  of  any  pride  of  race 
that  China  gradually  narrowed  her  associations 
with  foreigners  until  Canton  became  the  sole  lawful 
emporium  of  their  trade.  It  was  because  their  dis- 
orderly and  masterful  conduct  had  displayed  them 
in  the  light  of  intolerable  associates.  It  was  not 
because  she  entertained  any  project  of  terminating 
their  commerce  and  driving  them  from  her  coasts 
that  she  instructed  Commissioner  Lin  to  adopt  the 
measures  which  finally  involved  her  in  war.  It  was 
because  they  had  introduced  into  their  commerce  an 
unlawful  element  which  threatened  to  debilitate  her 
people,  morally  and  physically,  and  to  exhaust  her 


98       CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

treasure.  But  for  opium-smuggling  by  British  sub- 
jects, the  war  would  never  have  taken  place,  so  far 
as  human  intelligence  can  discern.  History  can 
have  only  one  verdict  in  the  matter.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  doubt  that  had  opium  been  an  insignificant 
article  of  commerce,  a  country  where  the  public  con- 
science is  so  highly  developed  as  it  is  in  England 
would  never  have  officially  associated  herself  with 
such  a  traffic,  or  questioned  China's  right  to  crush  it 
by  the  exercise  of  any  measures,  however  drastic. 
But  opium  was  not  an  insignificant  article  of  com- 
merce. It  was  the  lubricant  which  kept  the  whole 
machinery  of  England's  trade  running  smoothly 
and  satisfactorily.  India  owed  England  a  large 
sum,  and  further  bought  from  her  every  year  much 
more  than  she  sold  her.  To  redress  the  balance  and 
to  meet  payments  on  account  of  interest  and  prin- 
cipal, considerable  sums  of  specie  should  have  been 
annually  transmitted  from  Calcutta  to  London.  On 
the  other  hand,  England's  purchases  every  year 
from  China  greatly  exceeded  her  sales  to  her,  and 
consequently  some  millions  sterling  of  specie  should 
have  been  sent  annually  from  London  to  Canton. 
Here  it  was  that  opium  performed  such  a  cardinal 
function.  India  discharged  her  debt  to  England 
with  opium,  and  this  being  carried  by  British  mer- 
chants to  China  England  in  turn  discharged  her 
debt  to  China  with  the  drug.  Thus,  in  fine,  the 
flow  of  specie  from  India  to  England  was  avoided, 
and  to  complete  the  economic  advantage  the  British 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH      99 

Government  of  India  derived  a  bulky  item  of 
revenue  by  taxing  the  opium  before  its  shipment  to 
China.  If  the  magnitude  of  a  sacrifice  on  the  altar 
of  international  morality  excuses  reluctance  to  make 
it,  there  is  much  to  extenuate  England's  offence.  If 
the  vastness  of  the  material  interests  involved  im- 
poses upon  statecraft  any  obligation  of  circumspec- 
tion in  dealing  with  them,  the  reckless  precipitancy 
of  Commissioner  Lin's  attempt  to  kill  this  giant 
commerce  by  a  thunder-clap  process  of  extinction 
deserved  the  fate  which  overtook  it."  * 

Perhaps  it  may  be  allowable  to  take  a  single  ex- 
ception to  the  remark  of  the  judicious  writer  just 
quoted,  where  he  says  that  "  but  for  opium-smug- 
gling by  British  subjects,  the  war  would  never  have 
taken  place,  so  far  as  human  intelligence  can  dis- 
cern. History  can  have  but  one  verdict  in  the 
matter."  Opium-smuggling  by  British  merchants 
undoubtedly  led  to  the  war,  but,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  conditions  were  so  anomalous,  and  the  moral  in- 
capacity of  each  side  to  see  the  other's  point  of  view 
so  complete,  that  one  might  with  equal  justice  say 
that  sooner  or  later  the  conflict  must  have  been 
precipitated  if  the  poppy  plant  had  never  been  dis- 
covered. (Incidentally  it  may  be  suggested  that 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  "  history "  can  have  a 
"  verdict "  upon  what  under  different  conditions 
would  or  would  not  have  happened,  which  is  at  best 
only  matter  of  probable  opinion.)  This  is  made  the 
*"  Japan  and  China,"  voL  ii.,  pp.  12-15. 


loo     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

more  obvious  because  in  less  than  fifteen  years  after 
the  treaty  of  1842  the  complaints  on  the  part  of  the 
British  against  China  had  so  accumulated,  with  ag- 
gravated and  mordant  concomitants,  that  another 
war  was  inevitable.  That  a  lucrative  traf^c  does  not 
tend  to  clear  the  moral  vision  of  those  who  partici- 
pate in  it  is  by  no  means  a  novel  truth.  Opium- 
smuggling  neutralised  the  stern  edict  of  1729 
against  the  drug,  and  but  for  that  smuggling  there 
is  no  obvious  reason  why  China  might  not  have  as 
successfully  freed  herself  from  the  curse  as  Japan, 
who  strangled  the  serpent  before  it  had  grown 
strong  enough  to  strike.  That  opium  has  been  a 
greater  evil  to  China  than  war,  famine,  and  pesti- 
lence combined,  although  probable,  is  not  indeed 
susceptible  of  apodeictic  proof.  In  the  book  already 
mentioned,  called  "  China's  Only  Hope,"  Governor- 
General  Chang  Chih-tung  has  a  chapter  entitled 
"  Cast  Out  the  Poison,"  in  which  he  declares  that 
"  opium  has  spread  with  frightful  rapidity  and 
heartrending  results  through  the  Provinces.  Mil- 
lions upon  millions  have  been  struck  down  with  the 
plague.  To-day,  it  is  running  like  wildfire.  In  its 
swift,  deadly  course  it  is  spreading  devastation 
everywhere,  wrecking  the  minds  and  eating  away 
the  strength  and  wealth  of  its  victims. 
Unless  something  is  soon  done  to  arrest  this  awful 
scourge  in  its  devastating  march,  the  Chinese  people 
will  be  transformed  into  satyrs  and  devils.  This 
is  the  present  condition  of  our  country."     After 


BRASS    DISH   AND    IRON    BRUSH     loi 

prolonged  agitation  of  the  subject  on  the  part  of 
those  who  insist  that  national  acts  must  take  account 
of  moral  principles,  the  House  of  Commons  in  May, 
1906,  which  had  twice  before  passed  similar  votes 
by  small  majorities,  adopted,  by  unanimous  vote,  a 
resolution  that  the  export  of  opium  from  India  to 
China  is  morally  indefensible,  and  requested  the 
Government  of  India  to  put  an  end  to  it.  The  only 
logical  outcome  of  this  gradual  change  of  front  is 
the  ultimate  cessation  of  the  trade,  and  aid  given  to 
China  in  freeing  herself  from  its  effects.  At  present 
the  Chinese  Government  is  engaged  in  an  apparently 
sincere  attempt  to  put  an  end  to  the  smoking,  the 
sale,  and  the  cultivation  of  opium,  but  probably  with- 
out an  adequate  conception  of  the  almost  but  not 
wholly  insuperable  obstacles. 

From  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  Nanking,  in 
1842,  to  the  close  of  the  century,  amid  all  the  per- 
mutations and  combinations  of  politics  and  policies, 
there  was  never  a  time  when  China  and  the  Western 
Powers  understood  one  another.  Many  foreigners 
in  China  were  autocratic,  dictatorial,  and  openly 
contemptuous  of  the  rights  of  the  Chinese.  The 
latter,  and  more  especially  the  ruling  Manchus,  were 
narrow  of  vision,  relatively  ignorant,  conceited,  ob- 
structive, obstinate,  and  insincere,  in  Lord  Elgin's 
phrase,  "  yielding  nothing  to  reason  and  everything 
to  fear."  They  had  no  wish,  and  no  reason  to 
wish,  to  come  into  the  "  sisterhood  of  nations,"  and 
when  forced  to  join  the  happy  family  they  employed 


102     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

their  wonderful  talents  in  successfully  playing  off 
one  Power  against  another. 

Fresh  troubles  constantly  arose,  each  one  being 
generally  settled  by  opening  other  ports,  which  fre- 
quently led  to  more  troubles  to  be  adjusted  by  yet 
more  ports.  Adequately  to  treat  of  the  complex 
causes  of  these  phenomena  would  of  itself  require  a 
small  volume.^  Western  Powers  had  sent  to  China 
far  too  many  men  of  the  type  of  Sir  Harry  Parkes 
(whose  statue  adorns  the  Shanghai  water-front), 
who  mistrusted  all  Chinese  and  who  would  put  up 
with  no  "  nonsense  "  from  obstructive  officials ;  and 
far  too  few  of  the  Lord  Elgin  variety,  whose  sim- 
ple rule  was  never  to  make  an  unjust  demand,  and 
never  to  retreat  from  a  demand  once  made. 

In  the  remarkable  articles  (already  quoted)  pub- 
lished by  Sir  Robert  Hart  immediately  after  the 
close  of  the  siege  of  Peking,  the  author,  whose  ex- 
perience in  China  and  whose  knowledge  of  the  Chi- 
nese point  of  view  is  altogether  unequalled,  devotes 
some  paragraphs  to  an  effort  to  make  his  readers 
understand  what  that  point  of  view  is.  As  no  other 
foreigner  in  China  can  speak  with  equal  authority 
we  cannot,  perhaps,  do  better  than  to  quote  these 
significant  sentences,  observing  parenthetically  that 
he  has  (doubtless  for  reasons)  altogether  ignored 

•*  Those  who  seek  a  fuller  presentation  of  this  topic  are  re- 
ferred to  chapters  ix.,  x.  and  xi.  of  Holcombe's  "  Real  Chi- 
nese Question"  (reprinted  in  England  in  cheap  form  under 
the  title:  "China's  Past  and  Future"),  and  to  the  first  eight 
chapters  of  the  author's  "  China  in  Convulsion." 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH    103 

many  important  items,  such  as  the  fixing  for  China 
by  the  Powers  of  a  low  and  practically  unalterable 
rate  of  import  duty ;  the  destructive  effects  on  China 
of  the  commercial  intrusion  of  foreigners;  and  es- 
pecially the  unbridled  territorial  aggression  by 
which  nearly  the  whole  seaboard  of  the  Empire,  as 
well  as  the  Provinces  bordering  on  the  great  Yang- 
tzu  River,  were  either  the  present  or  the  intended 
"  sphere  of  influence "  of  some  European  govern- 
ment, or  actually  "  leased  "  to  them,  from  Kuang 
Chou  Wan  and  Kowlung  in  the  far  south,  to  Kiao 
Chou,  Wei  Hai  Wei,  and  Port  Arthur  in  the  north 
— not  a  port  being  left  in  which  the  Chinese  could 
mobilise  their  own  navy! 

The  position  which  the  Chinese  take  up,  said  Sir 
Robert  Hart  in  1900  (and  the  case  is  very  much 
stronger  now),  may  be  said  to  be  this:  "We  did 
not  invite  you  foreigners  here,  you  crossed  the  seas 
of  your  own  accord  and  more  or  less  forced  your- 
selves on  us.  We  generously  permitted  the  trade 
you  were  at  first  satisfied  with,  but  what  return  did 
you  make?  To  the  trade  we  sanctioned  you  added 
opium-smuggling,  and  when  we  tried  to  stop  it  you 
made  war  on  us !  We  do  not  deny  that  Chinese  con- 
sumers kept  alive  the  demand  for  the  drug,  but  both 
consumption  and  importation  were  illegal  and  pro- 
hibited ;  when  we  found  it  was  ruining  our  country 
and  depleting  our  treasury,  we  vainly  attempted  to 
induce  you  to  abandon  the  trade,  and  we  had  then 
to  take  action  against  it  ourselves.    War  ensued; 


I04     CHINA    AND    AMERICA   TO-DAY 

but  we  were  no  warriors,  and  you  won,  and  then 
dictated  treaties  which  gave  you  Hongkong  and 
opened  several  ports,  while  opium  still  remained  con- 
traband. Several  years  of  peaceful  intercourse  fol- 
lowed, and  then  Hongkong  began  to  trouble  us;  it 
was  originally  ceded  to  be  a  careening-place  for  ships 
simply,  but,  situated  on  the  direct  route  to  the  new 
ports,  it  grew  into  an  emporium,  and  also,  close  to 
our  coast  and  rivers,  it  became  a  smuggling  centre ; 
in  your  treaties  you  had  undertaken  a  certain  control 
of  any  junk  traffic  that  should  spring  up,  but  when 
that  traffic  became  considerable  you  dropped  the 
promised  control,  and  our  revenue  suffered. 

"  Originally  uninhabited,  Hongkong  now  became 
the  home  of  numerous  Chinese  settlers,  many  of 
them  outlaws  who  dare  not  live  on  the  mainland; 
these  became  British  subjects,  and  you  gave  the  Brit- 
ish flag  to  their  junks,  which  were  one  day  British 
and  another  day  Chinese,  just  as  it  suited  their  pur- 
pose; and  out  of  this  came  the  'Arrow'  war,  fol- 
lowed by  new  treaties,  additional  ports,  legalised 
opium,  and  fresh  stipulations,  in  their  turn  the 
cause  of  fresh  troubles.  Whether  it  was  that  we 
granted  you  privileges  or  that  you  exacted  conces- 
sions, you  have  treated  the  slightest  mistakes  as  vio- 
lations of  treaty  rights,  and,  instead  of  showing 
yourselves  friendly  and  considerate,  you  insult  us 
by  charges  of  bad  faith  and  demand  reparation 
and  indemnities.  Your  legalised  opium  has  been  a 
curse  in  every  Province  into  which  it  penetrated. 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH    105 

and  your  refusal  to  limit  or  decrease  the  import  has 
forced  us  to  attempt  a  dangerous  remedy;  we  have 
legalised  native  opium — not  because  we  approve  of 
it — but  to  compete  with  and  drive  out  the  foreign 
drug,  and  it  is  expelling  it,  and  when  we  have  only 
the  native  production  to  deal  with,  and  thus  have  the 
business  in  our  own  hands,  we  hope  to  stop  the 
habit  in  our  own  way.  Your  missionaries  have 
been  everywhere  teaching  good  lessons,  and  benev- 
olently opening  hospitals  and  dispensing  medicine 
for  the  relief  of  the  sick  and  the  afflicted,  but  wher- 
ever they  go  trouble  goes  with  them,  and  instead 
of  the  welcome  their  good  intentions  merit,  locali- 
ties and  officials  turn  against  them;  when  called 
on  to  indemnify  them  for  losses,  we  find  to  our  as- 
tonishment that  it  is  exactions  of  would-be  mil- 
lionaires we  have  to  satisfy!  Your  people  are 
everywhere  extra-territorialised ;  but  instead  of  a 
grateful  return  for  this  ill-advised  stipulation,  they 
appear  to  act  as  if  there  were  no  laws  in  China,  and 
this  encourages  native  lawlessness  and  makes  con- 
stant difficulties  for  every  native  official. 

"  You  have  demanded  and  obtained  the  privilege 
of  trading  from  port  to  port  on  the  coast,  and  now 
you  want  the  inland  waters  thrown  open  to  your 
steamers.  Your  newspapers  vilify  our  officials  and 
our  Government,  and,  translated  into  Chinese,  circu- 
late very  mischievous  reading;  but  yet  they  have 
their  uses,  for,  by  their  threats  and  suggestions, 
they  warn  us  what  you  may  some  day  do,  and  so 


lo6     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

help  us  indirectly,  although  that  does  not  conduce 
to  mutual  respect  and  liking.  All  these  things 
weaken  official  authority — therefore  the  official 
world  is  against  you;  and  they  hurt  native  traders 
— ^therefore  the  trading  classes  are  indignant. 
What  countries  give  aliens  the  extra-territorial 
status?  What  countries  allow  aliens  to  compete  in 
their  coasting  trade?  What  countries  throw  open 
their  inland  waters  to  other  flags  ?  And  yet  all  these 
things  you  compel  us  to  grant  you!  Why  can  you 
not  treat  us  as  you  treat  others?  Were  you  to  do 
so,  you  would  find  us  friendly  enough,  and  there 
would  be  an  end  of  this  everlasting  bickering  and 
these  continually  recurring  wars ;  really  you  are  too 
short-sighted,  and  you  are  forcing  us  to  arm  in 
self-defence,  and  giving  us  grudges  to  pay  off  in- 
stead of  benefits  to  requite." 

The  Golden  Rule  of  Christ  teaches  us  to  do  to 
others  as  we  would  have  them  do  to  us.  In  ac- 
cordance with  the  usual  negative  forms  of  expres- 
sion and  the  passive  temperament  of  the  Chinese, 
the  Confucian  dictum  was  not  to  do  unto  others 
as  we  would  not  have  them  do  unto  us. 

The  version  of  "  David  Harum,"  to  do  to  the 
other  man  what  he  wants  to  do  to  you,  and  to  do  it 
first,  is  that  upon  which  Western  Powers  in  China 
have  for  the  most  part  acted.  The  time  has  now 
come  when  this  is  no  longer  possible.  It  is  im- 
perative that  there  should  be  a  radical  readjustment 


BRASS    DISH   AND   IRON    BRUSH    107 

of  the  relations  between  the  West  and  the  East. 
The  mutual  suspicions  and  antagonisms  of  the  past 
must  be  replaced  by  reciprocal  enlightenment, 
friendliness,  and  confidence.  By  what  means  this 
is  to  be  accomplished,  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
important  of  living  questions. 


VI 

THE  NEW   FAR  EAST  AND  THE   NEW   CHINA 

The  British  Empire  is  in  a  way  the  modern  rep- 
resentative of  the  ancient  Roman  Empire,  not  merely 
because  in  a  geographical,  commercial,  and  financial 
sense  the  first  meridian  runs  through  its  capital, 
but  because  it  is  the  centre  of  a  ganglion  of  inter- 
ests which  literally  embrace  the  globe.  For  this 
reason,  the  intelligent  reader  of  a  great  London 
daily  will  be  able  to  learn  the  conditions  prevailing 
in  lands,  to  use  the  phrase  of  the  old  geographies, 
civilised,  semi-civilised,  and  savage.  The  reader 
of  the  most  comprehensive  American  journal  will, 
however,  as  a  rule  derive  from  its  columns  very  little 
co-ordinated  information  about  the  world  at  large, 
and  such  items  as  are  given  (owing  to  the  exigen- 
cies of  an  "  afternoon  edition  "  which  appears  about 
II  a.  m.,  and  an  "evening  edition"  which  is 
hawked  about  the  streets  at  3  p.  m.)  are  largely  un- 
classified. Intelligence  of  a  revolt  on  a  Russian 
man-of-war  is  preceded  by  an  account  of  a  subway 
accident,  say  at  Seventieth  street.  New  York,  and 
followed  by  a  lurid  narrative  of  an  earthquake  in 
Valparaiso,  and  also  of  the  efforts  of  a  man  in  the 
Bowery  to  sever  his  wife's  jugular  vein  with  a 

X08 


NEW   FAB   EAST    AND   NEW   CHINA      109 

table-knife.  This  is  not,  we  are  told,  because 
American  journalists  are  unenterprising,  but  be- 
cause the  American  demand  for  information  in  re- 
gard to  what  goes  on  abroad  is  homeopathic. 

It  may  be  said  in  general  that  there  is  in  the 
United  States  no  class  of  men  with  a  broad  and 
funded  knowledge  of  anything  outside  of  our  own 
national  interests,  more  particularly  of  those  lands 
the  languages  of  which  we  do  not  understand.  We 
are  without  anything  analogous  to  the  retired  civil 
service  men  of  Great  Britain,  who,  taken  in  the 
aggregate,  have  concerning  a  large  part  of  the 
world  a  knowledge  which  is  exact,  comprehensive, 
and  universal.  Americans,  on  the  contrary,  may 
rather  be  said  to  entertain  what  Bismarck  termed 
"  a  vast  and  varied  ignorance "  of  anything  and 
everything  at  a  distance.  For  much  of  their  infor- 
mation regarding  many  foreign  lands  Americans  are 
indebted  to  missionaries,  who,  as  a  rule,  are  men  and 
women  of  culture,  having  a  familiarity  with  the  lan- 
guages and  the  peoples  possessed  by  no  others,  and 
who  are  not  infrequently  almost  the  only  permanent 
foreign  residents  of  the  countries  to  which  they  are 
sent.  To  them  merchants,  trayellers,  and  especially 
newspaper  correspondents,  are  under  the  greatest 
obligation. 

Our  British  cousins  have  long  been  aware  of  the 
fact,  which  Americans  have  as  yet  scarcely  discov- 
ered at  all,  that  the  opening  years  of  the  twentieth 
century  find  a  large  part  of  the  world  in  a  transi- 


110     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

tional  state.  Following  the  Boer  war,  the  most 
delicate  problems  of  readjustment  tax  the  utmost 
skill  of  the  wisest  men  in  Great  Britain.  Railways 
are  opening  up  Africa,  but  with  them  are  also 
opened  up  land  questions,  labour  questions,  questions 
of  monopolies  in  gold  and  in  diamonds,  race  ques- 
tions, and  questions  of  the  relations  of  the  different 
European  Powers  to  one  another.  There  is  al- 
ready a  new  South  Africa.  When  the  Cape  to 
Cairo  railway  shall  have  been  completed,  there  will 
be  indeed  a  new  Africa.  There  is  already  a  new 
Egypt — an  Egypt,  the  reclamation  of  which  is  one 
of  the  most  spectacular  and  most  hopeful  events 
in  the  recent  history  of  mankind.  Can  it  be  that 
this  is  that  ancient,  that  mysterious,  that  extinct 
land,  of  which  our  Lowell  wrote? — 

"There  sits  drear  Egypt  'mid  beleaguering  sands 
Half-woman    and    half-beast. 
The  burnt-out  torch  within  her  mouldering  hands 
Which  once  lit  all  the  East" 

But  there  is  a  cloud  hanging  over  cloudless 
Egypt.  The  reflex  effect  of  the  great  Russo-Jap- 
anese war  has  penetrated  even  here.  There  is  a 
danger  of  which  British  statesmen  give  most  em- 
phatic warning.  The  fanaticism  of  the  Moslems  is 
astir,  and  while  fully  recognising  the  unparalleled 
advantages  of  British  rule,  they  are  yet  religiously 
hypnotised  by  the  Osman  whom  they  despise  and 
hate.     If  all  North  Africa  were  once  more  ablaze 


NEW    FAR    EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      iii 

with  a  "  holy  war,"  who  knows  what  might  not 
happen  ? 

Slowly  and  not  with  observation  there  is  com- 
ing to  be  a  new  Turkey.  The  "  unspeakable  Turk," 
who,  in  Freeman's  phrase,  has  been  merely  "  camp- 
ing in  Europe  "  for  five  hundred  years,  must  sooner 
or  later  recross  the  Bosphorus.  Then  what?  Cab- 
inets and  Berlin  Congresses  may  vote  as  they  like, 
and  a  generation  later  they  may  be  altogether  for- 
gotten in  the  city  where  they  had  so  done.  The 
real  principles  upon  which  the  New  Turkey  must 
be  built  will  be  those — and  those  only — which  by 
American  missionaries  have  been  taught  in  the  cities 
and  the  obscure  mountain  villages  of  European  and 
of  Asiatic  Turkey,  and  have  been  burned  into  the  in- 
tellectual, the  moral,  and  the  spiritual  consciousness 
of  the  students  of  many  races  in  polyglot  Robert 
College,  Constantinople.  There  is  indeed  to  be  a 
New  Turkey  when  all  this  weary  seed-sowing  will 
be  perceived  not  to  have  been  in  vain. 

In  that  great  continental  museum  of  nations  and 
races  which  we  compendiously  term  India,  great 
changes  are  taking  place.  Problems  which  are  even 
more  complex  than  elsewhere  confound  the  ablest 
rulers,  many  of  whom  recognise  that  in  the  general 
prevalence  of  Christianity  is  the  only  solution.  The 
British  Government,  which  less  than  a  century  ago 
deported  the  first  American  missionaries  as  poten- 
tial anarchists,  is  now  the  largest  supporter  of 
Christian  schools. 


112     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

On  the  day  following  the  first  victory  of  the  Jap- 
anese the  Indian  vernacular  press  contained  a  vivid 
account  of  the  battle,  with  the  brief  but  significant 
comment :  "  And  we  too  are  brown  men  1 "  The 
restlessness  of  the  Indian  peoples  became  more  pro- 
nounced, and  the  development  of  the  swadeshi  or 
patriotic  "  India  for  the  Indians "  movement  was 
reported,  the  outcome  of  which  no  one  is  wise 
enough  to  foresee.  Mohammedan  India,  it  should 
not  be  forgotten,  is  powerfully  influenced  by  the 
unrest  of  Egypt.  The  growing  sense  of  a  certain 
unity  where  heretofore  there  has  been  nothing  but 
segregation,  is  the  promise  and  potency  of  a  New 
India. 

Many  volumes  have  been  written  upon  the  new 
Japan,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  mere  perusal 
of  the  most  detailed  descriptions  can  give  anyone 
a  due  impression  of  the  magnitude  and  the  scope 
of  the  change  which  the  past  fifty  years  have  wit- 
nessed in  that  Empire,  a  metamorphosis  which  may 
be  likened  to  the  transformation  of  a  junk  in  mid- 
ocean  into  a  modern  steamer.  The  intense  patri- 
otism of  the  Japanese,  their  openness  of  mind,  their 
indomitable  perseverance,  their  genius  for  detail, 
their  talent  for  prevision  and  for  provision — all 
these  in  an  Oriental  people  are  bewildering  and 
amazing.  Moreover,  during  their  recent  war  they 
displayed  one  gift  which  Occidentals — most  of  all, 
Americans — ^have  never  possessed,  the  talent  for 
holding  their  tongues.     Hundreds  of  thousands  of 


NEW   FAR    EAST    AND    NEW   CHINA      113 

Japanese  knew  perfectly  well  where  Admiral  Togo's 
fleet  was  concealed,  but,  like  "  Bre'r  Rabbit,"  they 
all  "  lay  low  and  ain't  sayin'  nuffin'."  If  they  won 
world  victories,  instead  of  boasting  of  them  in  flu- 
ent and  florid  phrase,  the  facts  were  recited  with  no 
waste  of  adverbs  and  adjectives,  and  all  the  credit 
was  attributed  to  their  ancestors  and  to  the  ex- 
alted virtues  of  their  Emperor.  The  modest  and 
truthful  despatches  of  a  Japanese  general  or  ad- 
miral might  have  been  drafted  by  Julius  Caesar  in 
Gaul. 

That  there  is  another  and  a  very  different  side 
to  the  shield,  is  known  to  everyone  who  is  familiar 
with  the  Far  East.  Many  who  are  infatuated  with 
"  Great  Japan  "  are  cured  by  a  single  visit  to  Tokio, 
with  its  Yoshiwara,  a  city  within  a  city,  where 
"  regulated  vice "  attracts  no  more  attention  than 
tea-houses  and  cherry  trees  in  rural  districts.  When 
the  traveller  through  "  beautiful  Japan  "  sees  half- 
naked  women  and  almost  entirely  naked  men  stand- 
ing together  all  day  in  a  broiling  sun  on  a  platform 
lashed  to  steamers,  tossing  up  baskets  of  coal  for 
most  trifling  pay,  it  is  hard  to  realise  that  this  race 
is  not  on  a  level  with  the  Malays,  with  whom  they 
may  perhaps  have  affinities. 

No  such  sight,  even  among  the  big-footed  boat- 
women,  could  ever  be  seen  in  China.  In  the  mere 
work  of  administration  there  may  be  a  sense  in 
which  the  Japanese  do  almost  everything  better 
than  some  peoples  who  might  be  named  do  almost 


114     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

anything/  Japan  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  two 
most  efficient  countries  in  the  world.  As  between 
the  Japanese  and  the  Chinese  there  is  as  yet  not 
even  room  for  comparison,  for  China  and  real  effi- 
ciency have  never  made  each  other's  acquaintance. 
But  there  is,  so  far  as  appears,  a  general  agreement 
among  those  who  know  both  races  well,  that  mor- 
ally, and  especially  in  truthfulness  and  in  commercial 
integrity,  the  Japanese  are  greatly  the  inferior.  To 
disguise  facts  like  these  is  worse  than  idle,  for  they 
add  to,  and  in  part  constitute,  the  difficulty  of  the 
Far  Eastern  problem.  In  view  of  the  antiquity  and 
the  solidarity  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  it  is  obvious 
that  it  is  not  a  land  where  innovations  are  likely  to 
be  welcome.  In  this  respect  it  stands  at  a  great  re- 
move from  Japan,  which,  owing  to  China  a  part  of 
its  language,  its  literature,  its  philosophy,  its  prin- 
cipal religion  and  arts,  has  never  had  any  rooted 
prejudice  against  adopting  and  adapting  what  is 
foreign,  but  which  very  soon  becomes  effectively 
naturalised.  With  the  exception  of  Indian  Bud- 
dhism, China  may  be  said  to  have  taken  next  to 
nothing  from  abroad,  and  to  suit  its  Chinese  envi- 
ronment Buddhism  had  to  be  essentially  modified. 

1  For  a  comprehensive  exposition  of  Japan's  administrative 
achievements,  the  reader  is  referred  to  "  Great  Japan,  A  Study 
in  National  Efficiency,"  by  Alfred  Stead,  London,  1906,  and 
"  The  Real  Triumph  of  Japan,"  by  Dr.  Louis  L.  Seaman,  New 
York,  1906.  For  a  criticism  of  Japan's  forcible  exploitation 
of  Korea  and  the  Koreans,  see  "  The  New  Far  East."  by 
Thos.  F.  Millard,  New  York,  1906,  and  "The  Passing  of 
Korea,"  by  Homer  B.  Hulbert,  New  York,  1906. 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      115 

The  Nestorians  who  entered  China  in  the  sixth 
century  of  our  era,  and  the  mediaeval  Roman  Cath- 
oHcs  of  the  thirteenth  century,  eventually  disap- 
peared with  all  their  adherents  like  pools  of  water 
evaporated  in  the  desert. 

Representatives  of  the  toughest  and  most  unmal- 
leable  of  races,  after  we  know  not  how  many  ages 
of  striving  against  fate,  have  long  been  under- 
going slow  digestion  in  China,  until,  having  sold 
their  sacred  scriptures  and  their  synagogue,  and 
with  only  a  sad  memory  of  a  long,  silent  struggle, 
the  Jews  in  the  Chinese  Empire  are  upon  the  point 
of  extinction. 

The  Chinese,  as  we  have  seen,  found  themselves 
invaded,  much  against  their  will,  by  many  bands 
of  foreigners,  who  demanded  concessions  of  various 
kinds,  with  the  actual  or  implied  threat  of  force 
never  out  of  mind. 

China  was  in  no  condition  to  fight.  Its  "  army  " 
was  little  better  than  an  ill-organised,  ill-paid  po- 
lice force,  ineffective  even  against  a  widespread  re- 
bellion like  that  of  the  T'ai  P'ings,  and  wholly 
incapable  of  standing  against  a  respectable  foreign 
contingent.  Li  Hung-chang  had  for  a  long  time  a 
large  corps  of  foreign-drilled  troops.  China  grad- 
ually gathered  a  navy,  which  in  the  last  half  of  the 
"  eighties "  was  supposed  by  many  who  thought 
that  they  knew  to  be  a  formidable  fleet.  The  war 
with  Japan,  in  which  that  navy  was  at  a  blow  extin- 
guished, put  an  end  to  the  superstition.    The  re- 


ii6     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

newed  exhibition  of  China's  real  weakness  in  1900 
made  a  certain  impression  upon  the  unimpression- 
able conglomerate  which  collectively  we  call  China; 
and  led  the  way  for  a  more  or  less  half-hearted 
effort  at  "  reform,"  meaning  by  that  term,  for  the 
most  part,  not  renovation,  but  merely  a  rearrange- 
ment of  existing  materials.  During  all  these  years 
there  was  a  small  but  earnest  body  of  Chinese, 
largely  those  who  had  been  educated  abroad,  to- 
gether with  some  of  the  more  open-minded  younger 
men  at  home,  who  gave  themselves  with  unremitting 
zeal  to  preparing  the  way  for  the  New  China.  In 
the  reaction  (September,  1898)  following  the  Em- 
peror's premature  reform  decrees,  six  of  this  number 
died  as  martyrs,  beheaded  by  Imperial  command, 
protesting  to  the  last  that  by  reason  of  their  death 
the  cause  which  they  represented  was  all  the  more 
certain  of  ultimate  success,  and  that,  though  they 
were  slain,  multitudes  of  others  would  arise  to  take 
their  place.  But  it  was  the  overthrow  of  the  land 
and  naval  forces  of  Russia  by  Japan  in  1904-5  that 
gave  its  greatest  and  decisive  impulse  to  reform  in 
China,  which  has  since  then  set  in  like  a  strong 
tide,  but  with  so  many  eddies  and  cross-currents 
as  to  show  that  there  must  be  much  tacking  of  the 
junk  of  State  if  it  is  not  to  be  wrecked.  More 
especially  since  1900  a  series  of  important  changes 
in  army  administration  has  been  in  progress  in 
China.  Of  these  Governor-General  Yuan  Shih-k'ai 
has  (until  recently)  been  the  leader,  his  well-drilled, 


NEW   FAR    EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      117 

well-paid,  well-uniformed,  well-fed,  and  well- 
housed  soldiers  far  surpassing  any  others.  In  the 
autumn  of  1905  a  great  military  review,  with  ma- 
noeuvres, was  executed  on  the  plain  of  Chihli,  to 
which  foreign  military  attaches  and  correspondents 
were  invited,  and  where  they  were  duly  impressed  by 
the  evidences  of  a  revolutionary  change  in  Chinese 
military  effectiveness. 

During  the  succeeding  year  similar  exercises 
took  place  in  northern  Honan.  It  is  planned  to 
unify  the  hitherto  distinct  provincial  forces  into  one 
great  national  army,  and  to  raise  the  number  of 
troops  to  at  least  half  a  million.  At  present  Chi- 
nese soldiers  are  by  no  means  what  they  may  be 
expected  to  become  a  few  years  hence.  It  is  rec- 
ognised both  by  foreigners  and  by  Chinese  that 
evolutions  of  this  kind  bear  a  somewhat  remote 
likeness  to  the  sudden  and  unexpected  emergencies 
of  actual  war.  Yet  those  who  have  had  the  opportu- 
nity of  observing  the  contrast  between  the  Chinese 
army  which  judiciously  fled  before  the  Japanese  in 
1894,  and  the  troops  of  to-day,  see  not  only  change, 
but  thoroughgoing  transformation.  In  view  of  the 
present  military  outlook,  all  suggestions  as  to  the 
"  partition  of  China "  have  "  folded  their  wings 
like  the  Arabs."  The  always  strong  national  feel- 
ing of  the  Chinese  is  now  being  supplemented  by 
what  appear  to  be  the  germs  of  real  patriotism.  This 
is  at  present  accompanied  by  an  intense  anti-foreign 
wave,   due  to  the  combined  effect  of  the  causes 


Ii8     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

which  have  been  mentioned.  Injuries  and  wrongs 
which  were  formerly  either  unknown  or  unnoticed 
are  now  promptly  bruited  abroad  and  discussed  in 
the  tea-shops  and  in  the  press  with  marked  effect 
upon  the  hitherto  vague  and  ill-defined  Qainese 
public  sentiment. 

Imperial  birthdays  are  now  celebrated  with 
showy  processions  of  uniformed  school-children  and 
students,  who  are  perhaps  (as  at  Tientsin  in  the 
autumn  of  1905)  gathered  to  the  number  of  sev- 
eral thousand  and  addressed  by  the  Governor-Gen- 
eral or  other  high  officials  on  their  duties  to  their 
country.  A  leading  Chinese  journal  in  Shanghai 
prints  a  page  in  English,  headed  by  the  motto: 
"  Ducit  Amor  Patriae."  Telegraphs,  which  were 
generally  introduced  into  China  more  than  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  have  greatly  aided  in  increasing  the 
power  of  the  Central  Government  over  the  formerly 
semi-independent  "  Viceroys,"  or  Governors-Gen- 
eral. Telephone  systems  have  been  established  in 
several  Chinese  cities,  notably  in  Peking,  where 
they  are  used  for  administrative  purposes.  Elec- 
tric lights  are  now  seen  in  the  capital,  where  but 
recently  tiny  bean-oil  lamps  diffused  a  pervading 
darkness,  and  they  are  also  found  in  many  other 
cities,  even  in  the  far  interior. 

It  is  extremely  unfortunate  that  of  the  two  initial 
cases  of  the  introduction  of  railways  into  China, 
one  was  accompanied  by  such  a  palpable  and  gross 
breach  of  faith  as  would,  had  it  been  committed  by 


NEW.   FAR   EAST    AND   NEW   CHINA      119 

the  Chinese,  have  made  the  press  of  many  lands 
ring  with  indignation.  Under  a  concession  for  a 
horse-railway  (steam  being  expressly  barred)  for 
the  ten  miles  and  more  from  Shanghai  to  Wu-sung 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Huang-p'u  river,  upon  which 
Shanghai  stands,  a  steam  engine  was  surreptitiously 
smuggled  in.  Its  use  instantly  led  to  riots  of  a 
serious  and  determined  nature.  The  case  soon  be- 
came a  diplomatic  one,  and  to  end  it  the  Chinese 
Government  bought  the  line  outright,  but  was 
compelled  to  run  it  for  a  year,  which  it  did 
faithfully.  At  the  expiration  of  that  period  the 
Government  had  the  railway  torn  up  and  shipped  to 
Formosa,  where  it  became  the  nucleus  of  a  line 
which  was  extended  later.  Is  it  difficult  to  com- 
prehend the  feelings  of  the  Chinese  at  being  tricked 
in  this  manner?  The  result  was  to  confirm  Chi- 
nese suspicion,  enhance  Chinese  watchfulness,  and 
to  postpone  for  a  long  time  the  railway  opening 
of  China. 

The  short  line  from  the  K'al  Ping  coal  mines  east 
of  Tientsin,  on  the  other  hand,  was  allowed  to 
evolve  by  a  natural  process,  and  was  withal  con- 
ducted by  the  manager,  Mr.  Kinder,  with  so  much 
skill  and  tact  that  no  serious  opposition  was  en- 
countered. In  1897  it  was  at  length  extended  from 
Tientsin  to  Peking,  incidentally  ruining  both  the 
boat  traffic  on  the  Peiho  and  the  city  of  T'ung 
Chou  (twelve  miles  east  of  Peking),  which  made 
the  mistake  of  driving  it  away  in  haste,  only  to 


120     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

repent  later  in  dust  and  ashes  when  there  was  no 
help.  During  the  late  war  the  heavy  and  unexam- 
pled profits  accruing  from  the  Government  rail- 
ways, amounting  at  times  to  perhaps  $500,000  (sil- 
ver) a  month,  tended  to  put  a  final  quietus  upon  the 
sentimental  and  other  objections  hitherto  entertained 
by  many  of  the  people,  who  appreciated  the  advan- 
tages of  the  improved  facilities,  and  were  prompt 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  same. 

A  brief  notice  of  the  railways  already  in  operation 
in  China  will  convey  an  idea  of  the  extent  of  the 
changes  which  they  imply. 

(i)  Tientsin  to  Peking  and  T'ung  Chou;  Tien- 
tsin to  Newchwang.  Total  length,  about  540 
miles.  Built  by  a  British  company,  and  in  part 
mortgaged  to  British  bondholders. 

(2)  Shanghai  to  Wu-sung;  Shanghai  to  Suchow 
and  Wusieh.  Total  present  length,  90  miles.  To 
be  extended  as  much  farther  to  Nanking.  Built 
by  a  British  company. 

(3)  The  "Peking  Syndicate"  (Anglo-Italian) 
railway.  Bought  by  the  Chinese  Government.  Tao- 
kou  to  Ch'ing-hua  chen  (Honan).  Total  length, 
89^  miles. 

(4)  Peking  to  Hankow  (Ching-Han).  Total 
length,  1,215  kilometers — 760  miles;  branch  line  to 
Fang-shan,  9  miles;  K'ai-feng-fu  to  Ho-nan  fu 
(not  yet  opened),  136  miles.  Franco-Belgian  cap- 
ital. 


NEW   FAR    EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      121 

(5)  Ts'ing  Tao  to  Chi-nan  fu  (Shantung  Prov- 
ince).    Length,  247  miles.     German. 

(6)  Manchurian  line.  Harbin  to  Port  Arthur, 
about  400  miles,  controlled  to  Kuan-ch'eng  tzu  by 
Japanese,  from  there  to  Harbin  by  Russians. 

(7)  Chinese  lines:  Manchuria.  Chin-chou  to 
Hsin-men  t'un,  173  miles;  thence  to  Moukden. 

(8)  Borders  of  Kiangsi  and  Hunan  Provinces. 
P'ing-hsiang  to  Li-ling,  56^  miles. 

(9)  Canton  to  Fatshan  and  Samshui,  31  miles. 
(This  was  a  part  of  the  Yueh  Han  line,  the  conces- 
sion for  which  was  given  to  an  American  syndicate.) 
A  short  line  of  railway  to  connect  the  preceding 
with  the  city  of  San-ning  (Hsin-ning  hsien)  is  mak- 
ing rapid  progress  in  construction.  At  its  northern 
terminus,  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  West  river,  a 
mart  is  to  be  built  to  be  called  "  New  Town."  The 
capital  for  this  road  was  subscribed  by  Chinese  in 
America  and  Australia,  and  the  whole  work  of  con- 
struction is  carried  on  by  them.  Among  these  Chi- 
nese capitalists  are  many  earnest  Christians,  and  in 
drawing  up  plans  for  the  New  Town  they  reserved 
a  special  plot  of  ground  near  the  centre,  where  a 
large  church  and  school  are  to  be  built  for  the  use 
of  the  Christian  portion  of  the  community.  The 
streets  are  to  be  laid  out  like  those  of  the  cities  and 
towns  of  the  United  States.  The  Director  of  Rail- 
ways in  the  Province  of  Fukien  has  recently  made 
a  tour  to  the  settlements  of  his  fellow  provincials 


122     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

In  Singapore,  Penang,  and  Java,  and  has  secured  a 
subscription  of  some  million  taels  to  form  a  joint- 
stock  company  to  link  with  those  of  the  adjacent 
'Provinces  the  Fukien  railways,  which  will  be  con- 
trolled not  by  the  Government,  nor  yet  by  officials, 
but  by  a  board  of  directors. 

(10)  Swatow  to  Ch'ao-chou  fu  (Kuangtung 
Province).  Length,  23I  miles,  or,  with  sidetracks, 
30  miles. 

(11)  Peking  to  Kaigan.  Completed  to  the  en- 
trance to  the  Nankow  Pass.  It  is  meant  to  extend 
this  later  to  Urga  and  Kiakhta,  and  to  connect  with 
the  trans-Siberian  line. 

(12)  Chen-ting  fu  to  Tal-yuan  fu  (Shansi 
Province)  narrow  gauge.  Financed  by  the  Russo- 
Chinese  Bank.  About  one-half,  or  80  miles,  com- 
pleted. 

(13)  French  lines:  Hanoi  (Tongklng)  to  Yun- 
nan fu,  the  capital  city  of  Yim-nan  Province,  From 
Lao-kai,  the  Chinese  frontier,  to  Yun-nan  fu  is  about 
298  miles.  Hanoi  to  Nan-ning  fu  in  Kuangtung. 
These  are  as  yet  incomplete  and  are  only  partly  in 
Chinese  territory. 

The  British  are  beginning  a  line  from  Kowlung, 
opposite  Hongkong,  to  Canton.  The  Portuguese,  in 
conjunction  with  the  Chinese,  are  building  another 
from  Macao  to  Canton.  A  great  number  of  other 
railways  are  projected,  some  of  them  actually  be- 
gun, by  the  Chinese,  as  from  Shanghai  to  Hang- 
chow;  Kiukiang  to  Nan-ch'ang  fu,  etc.     It  is  es- 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      123 

pecially  desired  to  connect  Hankow  with  the  dis- 
tant and  inaccessible  Province  of  Ssu-ch'uan,  but 
this  is  recognised  as  being  impracticable  without 
foreign  help,  which  the  Chinese  positively  decline. 
There  is  a  short  railway  (26  miles)  connecting  with 
the  Peking  to  the  Hankow  line  and  leading  to  the 
Western  Imperial  Tombs. 

On  account  of  the  lack  of  capital,  of  competent 
Chinese  engineers,  and  of  experienced  (not  to  say 
honest)  administrators,  no  confidence  is  yet  felt 
by  foreigners  in  China  in  the  practicability  of  de- 
veloping China  on  these  lines;  but  under  present 
conditions  China  must  either  be  developed  thus  or 
remain  undeveloped,  for  foreign  domination  or  in- 
terference the  Chinese  will  no  longer  tolerate.  Their 
evident  wish — and  intention — is  to  buy  out  as 
speedily  as  possible  all  foreign  "rights"  and  thus 
make  an  end  of  them. 

It  is  obvious  at  a  glance  that  the  combined  effect 
of  the  present,  and  far  more  of  the  impending, 
changes  in  intercommunication  and  transportation 
in  China  will  be  far-reaching  and  will  increase  in 
social,  economic,  and  political  importance  every 
year.  The  routes  already  in  operation  pass 
through  nine  out  of  the  eighteen  Provinces  in 
China,  and  through  three  others  in  Manchuria. 

The  navigation  of  the  inland  waters  of  China  by 
steam  vessels  has  within  the  past  few  years  been 
greatly  extended,  with  obvious  advantages  and 
equally  patent  evils.     The  inspection  of  boilers  is 


124     CHINA    AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

infrequent  and  at  times  perfunctory;  danger  and 
accidents  from  overcrowding  and  from  careless 
steering  are  serious  and  constant;  the  injury  to 
river  banks  in  time  of  high  water  by  the  wash  of 
steamers  is  so  great  as  to  lead  to  frequent  riots; 
and,  especially  on  the  West  river  of  the  Kuantung 
Province,  the  number  of  boatmen  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment is  given  as  an  excuse  for  the  alarming 
increase  of  river  piracy,  involving  the  loss  of  more 
than  one  foreign  life,  and  the  frequent  murder  of 
considerable  numbers  of  Chinese. 

The  Chinese  Government  has  adopted  the  plan  of 
opening  inland  "  ports  "  at  various  places  along  the 
line  of  railways,  and  a  considerable  number  in  Man- 
churia, in  order  the  better  to  resist  the  aggressions 
of  any  single  Power  by  enlisting  the  interest  of  all 
the  rest.  Each  new  "port"  is  an  additional  inlet 
and  gateway  for  new  ideas,  and  while  the  result  may 
not  be  an  unmixed  good,  the  change  in  an  important 
step  in  advance. 

The  Chinese  postal  system  is  not  yet  ten  years 
old,  but  in  the  last  half  of  that  period  it  has  been 
greatly  improved  and  extended  until  it  now  con- 
nects almost  all  the  cities  of  the  Empire.  During 
the  year  1905  the  number  of  offices  was  increased  by 
307,  and  the  present  rate  of  increase  is  about  one 
office  per  day;  there  are  perhaps  2,000  in  all.  The 
number  of  articles  handled  increased  in  1905  from 
66^  millions  to  76  millions,  and  the  parcels  from 
771,000  to  over  a  million;  while  the  money-order 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      125 

transactions  grew  from  half  a  million  taels  to  820,- 
000.  The  social,  educational,  and  political  value 
of  this  great  innovation  is  beyond  estimation. 

Industrial  institutes  have  appeared  in  many  of 
the  chief  cities,  where  different  arts  and  crafts  are 
taught  to  workmen  of  the  most  unpromising  char- 
acter, some  of  them  children,  others  beggars  picked 
up  from  the  street,  a  class  for  whom  there  has  hith- 
erto been  no  smallest  ray  of  hope.  These  establish- 
ments are  found  in  Peking  and  in  the  capitals  of 
many  of  the  larger  Provinces,  such  as  Suchow, 
Hangchow,  Chi-nan  fu,  and  Ch'eng-tu  fu  in  re- 
mote Ssu-ch'uan. 

Similar  enterprises  for  the  helpless  poor,  men  and 
women,  boys  and  girls,  have  been  opened  in  unoc- 
cupied granaries,  temples,  etc.,  under  the  charge  of 
a  kind  of  Bureau  of  Charities  (itself  an  unheard-of 
thing),  the  machinery,  teachers,  etc.,  being  fre- 
quently imported  from  Japan.  The  abundant  pat- 
ronage of  these  places  shows  that  they  are  meet- 
ing a  deep  need. 

Another  branch  of  the  same  general  plan  is  that 
of  instructing  the  prisoners  in  common  jails.  This 
reform  is  now  well-rooted,  and  is  a  wonderful  con- 
trast to  the  previous  indifference  and  neglect.  Pris- 
oners well-dressed,  well-fed,  and  well-guarded  are 
taught  to  weave  rugs,  run  sewing-machines  for 
leather  work,  make  boots  and  shoes,  stamp  Chinese 
writing  paper,  do  carpenter  and  iron  work,  to  print, 
to  dye,  and  many  other  things.     In  an  institution 


126     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

of  this  kind  at  Tientsin  there  is  a  lecture  hall  where 
the  prisoners  are  required  to  attend  daily  and  listen 
to  exhortation  and  instruction.  Large  sums  have 
been  invested  in  these  enterprises,  which  in  time  will 
yield  abundant  return. 

For  the  display  of  the  results  of  these  and  other 
manual-training  schools,  industrial  exhibits  have 
been  opened.  By  degrees  this  grows  into  a  stand- 
ing exposition  of  whatever  may  be  most  noteworthy 
in  the  output  of  a  place.  Such  an  one  has  for  some 
years  been  opened  in  Tientsin,  with  an  average  at- 
tendance of  visitors  (men  and  women  on  separate 
days)  of  2,000  a  day.  On  the  latest  of  these  oc- 
casions the  show  was  specially  noteworthy  and 
promising.  Prizes  were  distributed  and  certificates 
bestowed  with  great  pomp  and  circumstance,  being 
handsomely  framed,  carried  in  yellow  chairs,  and 
placed  for  a  fixed  time  on  exhibition.  It  is  in- 
tended to  hold  such  displays  in  every  large  city, 
with  a  view  to  a  National  and  after  some  years  to 
an  International  Exposition. 

Manufactures  of  many  kinds  are  beginning  here 
and  there  also  to  appear,  generally  under  the  pat- 
ronage of  the  Board  of  Commerce,  which  is  inva- 
riably careful  to  require,  under  pain  of  forfeiture 
of  the  whole,  that  no  stock  shall  be  sold  to  a  for- 
eigner. Cotton  mills  and  silk  filatures  have  been 
established  in  Shanghai  for  many  years,  with  per- 
haps forty  thousand  employees — largely  women  and 
girls — and  are  spreading  into  the  interior,  but  many 


NEW   FAR    EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      127 

of  them  have  not  been  financially  successful.  In 
the  interior  improved  wooden  looms  are  being  in- 
troduced from  Japan.  Experts  from  Hangchow 
are  now  teaching  the  natives  of  Shantung  how  to 
spin  and  weave  the  silk  of  that  Province,  hitherto 
used  only  for  the  comparatively  coarse  product 
known  as  "  pongee,"  into  the  most  beautiful  fabrics, 
rivalling  those  of  Central  China.  Soap-making,  can- 
dle factories,  glass-works,  knitting  companies  and 
the  like  are  found  in  different  parts  of  the  Empire, 
but  for  the  lack  of  capital,  experience,  and  mutual 
confidence  these  enterprises  often  come  to  nothing. 
A  company  has  been  organised  to  use  steam-trawlers 
of  English  make,  with  nets  of  English  pattern. 
From  a  factory  in  Shanghai  there  is  a  considerable 
sale  of  pianos  to  Chinese,  who  also  use  thousands 
of  bicycles.  An  attempt  has  been  made  at  a  general 
introduction  of  uniformed  police  and  street-clean- 
ing, which  works  well  in  some  large  centres,  while 
in  others,  for  lack  of  intelligent  supervision,  it  has 
either  come  to  nothing  or  has  been  used  as  a  means 
of  extortion.  In  a  city  in  Chih-li  where  nobody 
speaks  or  understands  English,  sentries  with  rifles 
suddenly  began  to  march  up  and  down  (there  be- 
ing nothing  to  guard)  while  staring  notices  ordered 
travellers  to  go :  "  To  and  fro  by  the  left."  Ag- 
ricultural reform  has  been  begun,  especially  arbor- 
iculture, barren  hillsides  being  planted  with  pines, 
and  mulberry  trees  for  feeding  silk-worms  imported 
into  Shantung  from  the  south.     As  yet,  native  in- 


128     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

ertia  being  too  strong,  real  agricultural  progress 
has  been  but  slight.  A  new  Chamber  of  Commerce 
in  Canton  is  formed  of  two  and  seventy  different 
guilds,  proposing  to  open  a  bank,  to  issue  notes,  and 
to  imitate  foreign  manufactures  with  a  view  to 
driving  foreign  trade  out  of  the  country.  Many 
important  improvements  have  been  made  in  the 
laws  of  the  Empire,  some  of  the  more  barbarous 
punishments  being  abolished,  but  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  these  reforms  have  everywhere  gone 
into  effect. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  the  many  changes  in  China 
is  the  definite  abolition  by  Imperial  Edict  (Septem- 
ber, 1905)  of  the  old-style  examination,  and  the 
introduction  of  Western  learning;  an  innovation 
which,  whether  as  regards  its  radical  nature  in  over- 
turning the  precedents  of  nearly  two  millenniums, 
the  many  millions  whom  it  affects,  or  its  future  re- 
sults, may  when  complete  justly  be  reckoned  among 
the  most  remarkable  and  decisive  intellectual  revo- 
lutions in  the  history  of  mankind.  It  must  be  un- 
derstood that  as  yet  the  merest  beginning  has  been 
made,  and  that  there  is  and  long  will  be  a  conserv- 
ative party  which,  if  it  were  able,  would  gladly 
move  the  shadow  on  the  dial-plate  backward.  That, 
however,  is  out  of  the  question — ^the  "  eight-legged  " 
examination  "  essay "  is  gone  forever.  In  China 
so  much  depends  upon  the  individual  incumbent  of 
each  post  that  at  first  sight  the  status  would  appear 
to  be  almost  chaotic.     Provincial  "  Colleges  "  were 


NEW   FAR    EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      129 

opened  when  there  were  neither  competent  In- 
structors nor  qualified  students,  the  whole  scheme 
resembling  a  pyramid  standing  upon  its  apex. 
Many  Japanese  teachers  were  invited  (and  many 
more  came  of  their  own  initiative)  because  they 
were  nearer  at  hand  and  cheaper  than  any  others, 
and  especially  because  they  are  Orientals. 

China  has  at  last  been  undisguisedly  sitting  at 
the  feet  of  her  age-long  pupil,  and  the  process  of 
the  "  Japanisation "  of  China  has  been  well  ad- 
vanced and  will  go  yet  further. 

But  in  time  the  Chinese  will  assert  themselves, 
as  they  always  have  done,  and  will  manage  their 
own  affairs — as  they  are  abundantly  competent  to 
do.  There  has  never  been  any  love  lost  between 
these  so  different  races,  which,  whatever  their  for- 
mal alliances,  will  almost  inevitably  tend  more  and 
more  to  drift  apart. 

It  is  in  the  metropolitan  Province  of  Chihli,  under 
Grovernor-General  Yuan  Shi-k'ai,  that  the  greatest 
educational  advance  has  been  made.  According  to 
a  memorial  from  him,  which  appeared  during  the 
year  1906,  there  were  in  operation  within  his  juris- 
diction the  following  institutions: 

The  Imperial  Pei  Yang  University  at  Tientsin. 

The  High  College  at  Pao-ting  fu. 

The  Imperial  Army  Medical  College. 

The  Industrial  High  School,  the  Agricultural 
High  Schools,  besides  Agricultural  and  Industrial 
Primary  Schools  to  the  number  of  21. 


130     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

The  Telegraph  College.  The  School  of  Draw- 
ing and  Mathematics. 

The  Normal  High  Schools  and  Normal  and  other 
Training  Schools,  89. 

Middle  Schools,  27. 

Advanced  Schools,  182. 

Primary  Schools,  4,162. 

OThe  Women's  Normal  School. 

Girls'  Schools,  40. 

'Yamen-runner's  Schools,  18. 

There  are  two  kindergarten  schools  in  Tientsin; 
nineteen  half-day  schools,  of  which  ten  are  official 
and  nine  are  private;  fifteen  night  schools,  with  an 
average  of  two  teachers  and  twenty-five  pupils  each. 
Also  one  Chinese  and  German  school;  one  secreta- 
ries* school ;  one  "  servants'  "  school ;  one  commer- 
cial school,  and  a  General  Educational  Association. 

The  number  of  students  shown  in  the  record  was 
86,653,  exclusive  of  those  in  the  half-day  and  night 
schools.  Including  military  and  police  students, 
the  total  amounts  to  100,000. 

Another  useful  institution  is  the  Educational  Mu- 
seum, founded  by  order  of  the  Industrial  Bureau  in 
J905.  It  is  provided  with  all  the  apparatus  for  ex- 
periments in  physics  and  chemistry,  with  the  instru- 
ments required  in  teaching  the  other  sciences.  Still 
another  establishment  is  the  Training  Institute,  to 
give  employment  to  poor  pupils  and  to  train  thenj 
to  become  skilled  workers  and  artisans.  The  stu- 
dents number  at  present  1,000,  and  are  taught  by 


new;  far  east  and  new  china    131 

fifteen  skilled  manufacturers,  three  of  whom  are 
foreign  experts. 

The  desire  for  the  new  learning  has  likewise 
reached  the  interior.  In  a  village  about  thirty-five 
miles  from  Tientsin  there  is  a  flourishing  girls' 
school.  The  curriculum  includes,  besides  the  Chi- 
nese written  language,  arithmetic,  geography,  ele- 
mentary science,  sewing,  drawing,  calisthenics, 
music,  and  etiquette.  The  large  school-room  is  ar- 
ranged like  that  of  a  Western  school,  and  biological, 
zoological,  and  physical  culture  charts  are  hung 
over  its  walls;  also  maps  and  blackboards.  The 
pupils  are  taught  to  sing  with  an  organ.  This  is  a 
free  school  supported  by  a  wealthy  family  of  the 
place,  a  member  of  which  is  the  chief  teacher.  It 
is  said  that  others  of  a  similar  kind  may  occasionally 
be  found  scattered  about,  and  their  influence  in  the 
New  China  cannot  be  estimated. 

Each  of  the  124  districts  of  the  Province  has 
about  twenty  primary  schools,  with  an  average  of 
thirty  boys  apiece,  who  are  taught  upon  a  more 
rational  plan  than  in  the  old  schools. 

Each  district  has  also  one  low-grade  and  one 
high-grade  elementary  school,  with  an  average  at- 
tendance of  fifty  boys,  who  not  only  study  Chi- 
nese books,  but  are  started  in  history,  geography, 
arithmetic,  and  simple  science.  In  each  of  the 
sixteen  prefectural  cities  there  is  a  middle  school, 
where  the  study  of  English  is  begun,  with  more 
advanced  courses  of  science  and  mathematics.  Much 


132     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

attention  is  given  to  developing  national  and  mili- 
tary sentiment.  Physical  training  is  an  important 
part  of  the  curriculum.  In  the  lower  grade  schools 
there  is  simple  drilling;  in  the  higher  colleges  the 
students  wear  uniforms,  are  given  manual  exer- 
cises with  the  rifle,  and  are  put  through  military 
evolutions.  The  text-books  impress  upon  students 
the  duty  of  developing  the  power  of  China,  the  dan- 
ger of  military  weakness,  and  the  importance  of 
self-sacrifice  for  national  interests,  illustrating  these 
teachings  by  reminders  of  the  rapid  development  of 
Prussia  and  of  Japan.  Instruction  in  all  is  free,  and 
in  the  higher  schools  the  students  are  boarded,  and 
even  clothed,  at  public  expense,  thus  opening  the 
new  education  to  the  poorest  families. 

It  is  obvious  to  one  acquainted  with  the  great 
cost  of  educational  institutions  that  such  a  system  of 
free  tuition  in  all  grades,  besides  its  inevitable  de- 
moralising tendency,  is  a  burden  far  too  heavy  to 
be  borne  by  the  State,  and  particularly  in  a  country 
like  China,  which,  while  potentially  rich,  is  actually 
poor.  Unless  this  policy  is  changed,  whenever  a  spe- 
cial revenue  applied  to  educational  purposes  dimin- 
ishes or  ceases,  the  schools  and  colleges  will  stop 
too.  How  long  they  can  be  conducted  on  the  pres- 
ent plan  is  uncertain.  Even  if  fees  absolutely  large 
were  to  be  charged,  they  would  at  best  provide  for 
but  a  fraction  of  the  heavy  cost  of  buildings,  equip- 
ment, and  instructors.  According  to  the  old  plan, 
one  teacher  taught  a  handful  of  boys  a  single  line 


NEW   FAR    EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      133 

of  study  only,  and  was  poorly  paid  for  his  work. 
On  the  new  scheme,  for  a  corps  of  teachers  giving 
instruction  in  a  wide  range  of  studies,  ten  times, 
fifty  times,  perhaps  several  hundred  times,  as  much 
must  be  expended,  and  how  is  the  money  to  be 
raised?  Much  of  the  teaching  is  extremely  inade- 
quate, and  there  is  a  great  dearth  of  teachers;  yet 
it  is  obvious  that  here  are  the  fertile  seeds  of  a 
New  Empire.  An  important  feature  is  the  surpris- 
ing development  of  schools  for  women  and  girls, 
which,  a  few  years  ago  absolutely  unheard  of,  are 
now  very  common  and  rapidly  increasing  both  in 
number  and  in  importance.  The  girl  students  are 
becoming  deeply  imbued  with  patriotic  sentiments, 
and  they  will  be  a  factor  of  prime  importance  in  the 
New  Qiina.  There  is  one  feature  of  the  new  edu- 
cation in  the  Far  East  of  especial  interest  to  Anglo- 
Saxons.  This  is  the  development  of  athletics,  for 
which  Orientals  have  hitherto  felt  only  contempt. 
To  see  hundreds  of  stalwart  young  Chinese,  in 
sporting  costume,  assembled  on  a  Saturday  after- 
noon (Sunday  being  usually  a  holiday  in  Govern- 
ment schools)  putting  the  shot;  throwing  the 
baseball ;  running  the  100  yards,  the  440  yards,  the 
mile,  and  the  obstacle  races;  executing  the  high 
jump,  the  long  jump,  the  pole  vault,  and  the  tug 
of  war — all  this  is  one  of  the  most  surprising  of 
modem  sights.  In  a  great  port  like  Shanghai,  on 
such  occasions  one  may  see  Taotais  by  the  dozen, 
and  thousands  of  onlookers,  including  many  girl 


134     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

students.  It  was  recently  announced  that  a  team 
from  the  Chinese  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Rangoon  had  won 
the  football  championship  for  all  Burmah,  defeat- 
ing not  only  all  comers  in  Burmah,  but  also  the 
British  regimental  teams,  which  came  from  several 
parts  of  the  presidency  to  try  conclusions  with  their 
Asiatic  opponents.  In  connection  with  the  Korean 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Seoul,  130  young  men  who  had 
been  brought  up  in  the  lap  of  luxury  and  who  a 
few  years  ago  would  not  have  gone  more  than  a 
few  yards  except  in  palanquins,  walked  six  miles  to 
the  field  with  flags  and  music.  Foreigners  who  have 
chanced  to  be  in  interior  cities  report  that  the  local 
contests  between  the  pupils  of  the  several  Govern- 
ment schools  arouse  the  most  intense  popular  inter- 
est, two  thousand  spectators  sometimes  attending, 
including  all  the  civil  and  military  officials.  A 
Chinese  company  of  students  in  Shanghai  has  re- 
cently been  allowed  to  join  the  Volunteers,  and 
gave  on  the  waterfront  an  exhibition  of  the  drill 
and  evolutions  which  the  local  journals  declared  had 
not  often  been  surpassed. 

For  two  generations  and  more  missionary  influ- 
ence has  been  exerted  against  the  ancient  Chinese 
custom  of  binding  the  feet  of  girls,  but  during  the 
past  five  years  more  progress  in  this  reform  has 
been  made  than  in  the  previous  half-century.  At 
a  great  farewell  meeting  held  at  Shanghai,  Novem- 
ber, 1906,  to  Mrs.  Archibald  Little  (the  wife  of  a 
British  merchant),  who  has  done  more  to  promote 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND   NEW   CHINA      135 

the  movement  than  any  other  individual,  the  reform 
was  definitely  turned  over  to  Chinese  leaders  for 
their  energetic  prosecution,  which  is  already  as- 
sured. The  greatest  interest  in  this  movement  has 
been  taken  by  the  highest  authorities,  Imperial 
Edicts  and  proclamations  by  Governors-General  and 
other  officials,  books,  tracts,  ballads — all  having 
contributed  to  its  furtherance.  This  will  always 
be  memorable  as  the  first  reform  which  the  Chinese 
have  cordially  taken  over  from  foreign  initiative, 
to  be  followed,  we  may  believe,  by  very  many  others. 
As  already  mentioned,  a  sincere  effort  is  now  in 
progress  by  the  Government  of  China  to  put  an 
end  to  the  use  of  opium  and  the  cultivation  of  the 
poppy  plant,  by  limiting  the  period  after  which  all 
opium-smoking  becomes  criminal,  and  by  peremp- 
torily closing  the  houses  where  it  is  publicly  smoked, 
as  well  as  by  forbidding  it  to  those  employed  in 
yamens,  to  officials,  soldiers,  and  all  Government 
servants.  It  is,  of  course,  easy  for  those  who  know 
how  "  reforms  "  in  China,  as  in  Russia,  have  been 
"written  with  a  pitchfork  on  the  surface  of  the 
sea,"  to  point  out  the  titanic  difficulties  to  be  en- 
countered. The  Chinese  Government,  which  issued 
its  first  drastic  decree  against  the  use  of  opium  167 
years  ago,  may  be  supposed  to  be  aware  of  that. 
Because  a  thing  never  has  been  done,  is  it  certain 
that  it  never  can  be  done?  Conditions  are  altered. 
A  strong  Chinese  public  sentiment,  never  before  in 
evidence,  is  now  antagonising  opium.     That  great 


136     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

reserves  of  active  and  passive  hostility  must  be  en- 
countered is  to  be  expected,  especially  as  many  of 
those  by  whom  the  laws  are  to  be  enforced  are  them- 
selves the  worst  offenders.  But  there  is  now  a  con- 
siderable number  of  able  men,  of  whom  H.  E.  T'ang 
Shao-i  is  the  leader,  who  are  in  dead  earnest,  and 
who  mean  to  give  their  lives  to  this  reform.  What 
these  men  need  is  not  criticism,  but  sympathy.  Even 
partial  success  in  the  course  of  a  generation  would 
be  a  remarkable  and  most  encouraging  transfor- 
matipn.2 

There  is  in  China  a  new  journalism.  The 
number  of  papers  under  native  management  is 
large,  and  also  fluctuating.  Instead  of  devoting 
their  columns,  as  a  decade  ago  many  of  them 
did,  largely  to  local  gossip,  private  and  public  scan- 
dals, and  to  blackmail,  these  journals  are  greatly 
widening  their  thoughts  with  the  process  of  the  Chi- 
nese sun.  Dr.  Woodbridge  of  Shanghai  (himself 
the  editor  of  a  widely  circulated  Christian  weekly) 

2  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  decree  ordering  the  discontinu- 
ance of  the  use  of  opium  was  directly  due  to  missionary  ini- 
tiative. In  May,  Dr.  H.  C.  Bu  Bose  of  Suchow,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Anti-Opium  Leag:ue,  had  an  interview  with  the 
Governor-General  of  the  "River  Provinces"  (H.  E.  Chou 
Fu),  and  was  told  that  if  a  memorial  signed  by  missionaries 
of  all  nationalities  were  sent  to  him  he  would  forward  it  to 
the  Throne.  Ruled  sheets  were  sent  to  450  cities,  and  the 
returns  gave  1,333  signatures,  which  were  bound  in  a  volume 
covered  with  yellow  silk,  and  sent  to  Nanking,  reaching  there 
August  19,  whence  they  were  forwarded  to  Peking.  The 
Imperial  Edict  was  issued  September  20. 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      137 

has  recently  written  of  them  in  these  terms :  "  Gen- 
erally speaking,  the  native  secular  press  is  not  anti- 
Christian.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  more  pro-Christian 
than  the  secular  press  in  Europe  or  America.  One 
never  sees  a  joke  against  the  Bible  in  the  native 
papers.  The  Chinese  people  are  peculiarly  susceptible 
to  what  they  call  tao-li,  or  doctrine — not  specially 
theological  doctrine — but  any  tenet  that  professes 
to  teach,  instruct,  and  reform."  The  "  Nan  Fang 
Pao,"  published  in  Shanghai,  has  a  foreign  page 
(the  one  with  the  Latin  motto)  which  it  calls  the 
"  South  China  Morning  Journal,"  in  which  with 
vigorous  English  the  editor — educated  in  America — 
fearlessly  attacks  abuses  both  among  his  own  coun- 
trymen and  among  foreigners,  some  of  whom  under 
this  unwonted  criticism  from  a  Chinese  source  are 
very  restive.  It  is  at  the  hands  of  such  men  that  the 
whole  history  of  China's  past  foreign  relations  is 
undergoing  thorough  review,  eliciting  caustic  com- 
ment. Is  it  surprising  that  the  "  Ocean  men  "  often 
wince  at  the  rehearsal  of  the  deeds  which  they  and 
their  fathers  perpetrated  with  a  light  heart  and 
with  no  apparent  thought  of  a  future?  Freedom 
of  the  press  cannot  yet  be  safely  granted  in  China, 
for  there  are  no  thousand  years  of  slow  preparation 
for  it.  The  story  of  the  progressive  editor,  P'eng  of 
"  The  Peking  Mandarin  Daily,"  who  was  the  leader 
in  a  patriotic  movement  to  raise  funds  to  pay  off 
the  foreign  indemnities  at  once,  is  both  pathetic 
and  ominous.     His  paper,  in  which  he  may  have 


138     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

been  somewhat  indiscreet,  was  suppressed,  he  was 
thrown  into  prison,  and  later  driven  at  once  into 
exile  and  into  insanity  I 

"  The  Woman's  Daily  Journal,"  of  Peking,  per- 
haps the  only  one  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  is  itself 
a  sign  of  the  new  times.  Its  capable  woman  editor 
has  also  interested  herself  in  attending  lectures  on 
current  events,  education,  sanitation,  reforms,  and 
the  like.  A  Manchu  Princess  (sister  of  Prince  Su, 
whose  palace  was  occupied  by  the  Christians  dur- 
ing the  siege  of  Peking),  herself  the  wife  of  a 
Mongol  Prince,  attended  one  of  a  course  of  these 
lectures  (held  in  the  chapel  of  the  American  Board 
Mission  in  Peking),  bringing  with  her  a  bevy  of 
girls,  samples  of  a  Mongol  school,  which,  in  imita- 
tion of  those  of  the  missionary  ladies,  she  had 
against  much  opposition  established  in  her  Mon- 
golian home.  Who  can  say  how  far  such  a  ray  of 
influence  may  penetrate,  or  when  its  transmitted 
effects  will  cease? 

A  few  words  must  be  added  about  the  New  Liter- 
ature with  which  China  is  now  being  inundated.  A 
competent  foreign  scholar  in  Shanghai,  Mr.  John 
Darroch,  who  investigated  the  matter,  found  that 
in  1905  there  were  about  1,200  new  publications  to 
be  found  in  the  book-shops  of  the  foreign  settlement 
of  Shanghai. 

Of  the  fifty-five  shops,  thirteen  confined  them- 
selves to  the  old  literature,  eleven  sold  both  new 
and  old,  and  thirty-one  only  the  new. 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND    NEW   CHINA      139 

The  largest  single  agency  in  China  for  their  pro- 
duction and  sale  is  the  Commercial  Press  (under 
Japanese  injfluence),  which  employs  many  hundred 
workmen,  with  a  pay  roll  of  $14,000  per  month,  and 
is  at  present  greatly  enlarging  its  plant.  It  has 
branches  at  Canton  and  Hankow,  and  agents  all  over 
China,  and  in  San  Francisco,  to  push  sales  among 
the  Chinese  in  America.  Among  the  new  works 
are  very  pretty  and  attractive  primers,  got  up  in 
foreign  style,  with  admirably  executed  pictures  of 
natural  objects.  There  were  found  sixty  volumes 
on  the  science  of  education,  and  twenty  volumes  of 
text-books  on  geography,  physics,  etc.  Ninety  his- 
tories ranged  in  price  from  five  cents  to  $2.50 
(silver) .  Seven  of  them  were  so-called  universal  his- 
tories, eleven  of  Europe,  twelve  of  Japan,  several  of 
China,  five  of  Russia,  four  of  England,  two  each  of 
France  and  the  United  States,  three  of  Egypt,  four 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  one  each  of  Italy, 
Rome,  Greece,  and  Turkey.  There  were  forty  books 
on  geography,  sixty  on  government,  forty  on  law, 
thirty  on  political  economy,  seventy  on  mathematics, 
fifty  on  literature,  fifty  on  language,  seventy  on 
health,  sixty  on  science,  seventy  on  drawing,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  on  the  art  of  war,  thirty  on  agri- 
culture, twenty  on  astronomy,  forty  on  mechanics, 
thirty  books  of  travel,  and  twenty  on  mensuration. 
Among  all  these  books  non-Christian  religions  are 
not  represented  by  a  single  tract  or  page.  Chris- 
tianity is  indeed  the  only  religion  referred  to  with 


I40     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

any  respect  by  the  writers  of  the  new  literature. 
"  They  are  not  pro-Christian,  some  of  them  even 
write  tirades  against  Christianity;  but  for  Taoism 
and  Buddhism  they  have  an  unmitigated  contempt." 
Fiction  was  represented  in  one  year  by  but  twenty- 
one  volumes,  and  in  the  next  by  fifty-seven,  showing 
which  way  the  Oriental  mental  tides  run.  Among 
well-known  books  translated  and  for  sale,  were 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin ;  Treasure  Island ;  The  Memoirs 
of  Sherlock  Holmes ;  Tales  from  Shakespeare ;  Joan 
of  Arc,  and  even  the  Arabian  Nights  is  said  to  be  in 
preparation.  In  a  paper  on  this  fertile  subject  read 
in  1905  at  a  meeting  of  the  Educational  Associa- 
tion, Mr.  Darroch  judiciously  remarked :  "  If  the 
Chinese  are  being  interested  in  Western  storybooks 
they  are  learning  to  appreciate  our  way  of  looking 
at  things.  It  will  not  much  longer  be  true  that  the 
mind  of  the  Orient  is  so  dissimilar  to  the  thoughts 
of  the  Occident  that  these  two  must  always  remain 
incomprehensible  to  one  another.  This  is  the  one 
touch  of  nature  which  will  make  the  whole  world 
kin,  and  we  shall  find  this  mighty  nation  of  400 
millions  as  susceptible  to  the  thrills  of  emotion 
which  sweep  over  our  national  life,  as  are  our  nearer 
and  more  intimate  neighbours.  That  this  change  of 
sentiment  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese  will  have  pro- 
digious effects  on  our  work  as  missionaries  and 
educationalists  will  not,  I  think,  be  gainsaid." 

The  despatch,  early  in   1906,  of  two  Imperial 
Commissions  from  China  to  the  West  to  study  the 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND    NEW   CHINA      141 

forms  of  "  constitutional  government "  was  an  in- 
teresting, a  spectacular,  and  a  significant  sign  of 
the  new  times  upon  which  China  has  fallen.  An 
attempt  to  destroy  one  of  these  parties  at  the  Pe- 
king railway  station  by  a  bomb  was  a  sinister  pre- 
lude, and  an  ill-omened  introduction  of  Occidental 
methods  into  the  East.  The  two  Commissions,  al- 
though absent  from  China  less  than  eight  months, 
visited  the  United  States  and  all  the  principal  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  The  leading  members  of  the  Com- 
missions, while  able  and  intelligent  men,  one  of 
them — a  Manchu  Prince — had  not  the  smallest  ac- 
quaintance with  constitutional  government,  and 
some  of  them  had  not  even  set  foot  on  a  steamer. 
But  by  the  aid  of  far-travelled  and  experienced  sec- 
retaries the  Commissioners  were  able  to  observe 
widely,  if  not  deeply,  and  to  prepare  comprehensive 
and  intelligent  reports  of  what  they  had  seen.  Upon 
their  return  and  on  the  presentation  of  their  re- 
ports, great  differences  of  opinion  developed  among 
the  leading  men  of  China  as  to  the  extent  to  which 
Japan  should  be  imitated  in  fixing  a  definite  date 
for  the  new  plan  to  begin.  The  conservatives  tri- 
umphed, and  a  decree  was  issued  mentioning  "  sev- 
eral years"  as  the  period  of  incubation,  which  in 
an  Oriental  country  is  generally  understood  to  be 
synonymous  with  postponement  to  the  Greek  Kal- 
ends. But  it  is  probably  a  fortunate  outcome,  for 
although  great  mass-meetings  of  rejoicing  were  held 
in  many  of  the  ports  and  in  some  inland  cities. 


142     CfflNA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

scarcely  any  one  had  any  idea  at  all  what  the  pro- 
posed innovations  involved. 

It  was  pointed  out  in  some  of  the  memorials  that 
the  people  are  as  yet  too  ignorant  to  render  the  step 
a  safe  one,  and  compulsory  education  was  urged. 
From  that  time  to  the  present  the  most  apparently 
radical  changes  in  governmental  machinery  have 
been  proposed,  and  many  of  them  adopted;  as,  for 
example,  the  abolition  of  some  of  the  many 
"  Boards,"  the  creation  of  an  indefinite  number  of 
new  ones,  and  (incidentally)  the  introduction  of  an 
entirely  new  and  bewildering  nomenclature.  But 
though  the  old  boards  are  thus  planed  and  varnished, 
with  new  titles  on  their  shining  faces,  of  essential 
reform  there  is  scarcely  any  sign,  although  sooner 
or  later,  against  great  opposition,  it  must  come.  In 
October  of  the  same  year  a  novel  examination  was 
held  in  Peking,  which  marks  a  turning-point  in  the 
educational  practice  of  a  great  Empire.  During 
two  entire  but  not  consecutive  days  fifty-three  can- 
didates were  examined  by  the  new  Board  of  Educa- 
tion for  the  two  highest  degrees.  Of  these,  twenty- 
three  had  studied  in  Japan,  sixteen  in  the  United 
States,  two  in  England,  and  one  in  Germany,  their 
ages  ranging  from  twenty-three  to  forty-four  years, 
and  their  degrees  from  that  of  a  graduate  of  a  Japa- 
nese "  High  School "  to  a  Doctor  of  Philosophy  of 
Yale  University.  Eleven  of  the  candidates  failed  to 
pass,  and  of  the  successful  contestants,  the  first 
twelve  places,  with  the  exception  of  the  sixth,  which 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND   NEW    CHINA      143 

was  taken  by  a  Trinity  Hall  man,  fell  to  ex- American 
students.  The  three  questions  propounded  to  the 
/  candidates  in  philosophy  were  as  follows:  (i)  De- 
fine philosophy,  and  distinguish  it  from  science  and 
ethics.  Explain  the  following  systems  of  philosoph- 
ical thought:  Dualism,  Theism,  Idealism,  Material- 
ism, Pantheism,  Agnosticism.  How  would  you 
classify,  according  to  the  Western  method,  the  fol- 
lowing Chinese  philosophers:  Chuang  Tzu,  Chang 
Tsai,  Chu  Tzu,  Lu  Tzu,  and  Wang  Yang  Ming? 

(2)  Explain  why  philosophy  developed  earliest  in 
Greece.  What  are  the  leading  thoughts  in  the 
teaching  of  Heraclitus?  Why  will  his  system,  at 
one  time  almost  obsolete,  again  become  popular? 

(3)  Expound  fully  Mill's  four  methods  of  induc- 
tion, and  mention  some  of  the  scientific  discoveries 
and  inventions  which  may  be  directly  traced  to 
them.  On  the  second  day  the  theme  for  the  essay 
was:  Will  it  be  expedient  for  China  to  adopt  the 
system  of  compulsory  education? 

The  candidates  were  graded,  first,  according  to 
their  foreign  degrees;  second,  on  the  basis  of  their 
work  since  graduation;  and  third,  on  their  exam- 
ination papers.  Those  who  attained  to  over  80  per 
cent,  of  a  possible  100  were  to  receive  the  first  de- 
gree (Chin  shih),  of  whom  there  were  eight;  those 
who  reached  70  obtained  a  first-class  second  degree 
(Chii  jen) ;  those  who  reached  60,  a  second-class  of 
the  same  rank,  while  those  marked  50  merely  re- 
ceived a  certificate  of  attendance  at  the  exami- 


144     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

nation.  The  candidates  were  allowed  to  prepare 
their  papers  either  in  Chinese  or  in  any  Western 
tongue  which  they  preferred,  and  all  those  from 
America  or  Europe  chose  English.  This  liberty 
shows,  as  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  successful  candi- 
dates (Dr.  W.  W.  Yen)  points  out,  that  "  at  last  the 
barriers  in  the  way  of  Western  knowledge  have  been 
battered  down,  and  the  new  education  in  China  will 
become  something  real  and  thorough."  Contrary 
to  all  previous  experience,  no  man  was  given  an 
official  position  simply  because  he  passed  the  exami- 
nation, that  being  left  to  be  otherwise  determined. 
This  does  away  at  a  blow  with  the  superstition 
that  every  man  able  to  satisfy  examiners  is  there- 
fore fit  to  hold  office.  No  religious  tests  were  re- 
quired, and  no  distinction  was  made  between 
Christians  and  non-Christians.  Indeed,  nine  of  the 
successful  men  were  Christians,  eight  were  Protes- 
tants, and  one  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  if  those 
were  included  who  took  their  preparatory  studies  in 
Christian  institutions,  the  number  would  be  larger.* 
It  is  somewhat  less  than  fifty  years  ago  since  the 

8  Among  those  who  took  degrees  at  this  examination  was  a 
graduate  of  an  American  dental  college,  and  another  whose 
forte  was  engineering.  The  delicious  absurdity  of  bestowing 
the  stately  title  of  "Entered  Scholar"  (Chin-shih)  upon 
students  of  this  type  was  not  lost  upon  the  reactionary  party. 
Even  more  open  to  criticism  was  the  entire  absence  of  any 
requirements  as  to  attainments  in  the  native  language  of  the 
candidates,  one  of  whom,  according  to  Dr.  Yen,  could  not 
write  his  own  name  decently  in  Chinese  I 


NEW   FAR   EAST    AND    NEW    CHINA      145 

Governor-General  of  the  two  Kuang  Provinces  (H. 
E.  Yeh)  was  captured  by  the  British  when  they 
took  Canton,  and  was  carried  off  to  Calcutta.  On 
the  long  voyage,  in  answer  to  a  question  why  he 
never  read  anything,  he  made  the  memorable  reply 
that  it  was  because  all  the  books  in  the  world  that 
were  worth  reading  were  already  stored  in  his 
"abdomen."  From  that  time  to  the  day  in  Octo- 
ber when  H.  E.  Yen  Fu  invited  sundry  graduates 
of  American,  British,  Japanese,  and  German  insti- 
tutions to  explain  how  Western  philosophers  would 
classify  Chuang  Tzu,  Chu  Hsi,  and  Lu  Tzu,  and 
why  the  system  of  Heraclitus  will  once  more  become 
popular,  is  what  the  hunt-loving  English  call  "  a  far 
cry  " ;  although  measured  on  the  vast  dial-plate  of 
Chinese  chronology  it  is  but  as  a  watch  in  the  night. 
Is  it  not  obvious  that  the  Genius,  now  fully  lib- 
erated from  the  Celestial  Bottle  in  which  for  some 
thousands  of  years  he  has  been  corked  and  sealed, 
will  never  again  be  got  back  inside?  And  is  it 
not  equally  plain  that  what  that  Genius  decides  to 
do  in  the  future  is  a  matter  of  considerable  mo- 
ment to  his  neighbours,  and  indeed  to  all  his  con- 
temporaries ? 


vn 

America's  advantages  and  disadvantages 

IN  CHINA 

A  Chinese  who  recognises  the  ideograph  which 
does  duty  as  the  name  of  America  (Mei,  from  its 
resemblance  to  the  English  word)  is  aware  that  it 
means  "  beautiful,"  and  that  when  dissected  it  is 
found  to  be  composed  of  two  characters  signify- 
ing "  great "  and  "  sheep."  His  ideas  as  to  the 
"  Western  "  land  which  is  yet  situated  due  east,  are 
vague  and  hazy.  His  mental  attitude,  so  far  as  he 
has  any,  is  that  of  unintelligent  ignorance. 

The  average  American  who  has  been  to  school, 
has  studied  geography,  reads  the  newspapers,  and 
who  constantly  hears  in  the  city  street-cars  and  in 
the  village  store  and  post-office  much  instructive 
conversation  on  current  events,  knows  that  China 
is  situated  in  the  west ;  that  it  has  a  "  Yang-tzu  Ki- 
ang  river,"  a  "  Huang  Ho  river,"  possibly  a  "  T'ai 
Hu  lake,"  or  even  a  "  T'ai  Shan  mountain  " ;  that 
its  proper  names  are  essentially  unpronounceable 
by  "  civilised  "  beings ;  that  its  language  is  a  pre- 
posterous medley  of  absurdities,  impossible  to  acquire 
and  useless  when  learned ;  that  all  Chinese  eat  noth- 
ing but  puppies,  rice,  and  rats;  that  for  thousands 

146 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     147 

of  years  this  people  have  been  decorated  with  "  a 
pig-tail " ;  that  they  have  a  fixed  habit  of  doing  ev- 
erything "  just  the  opposite  from  the  right  way  " ; 
and  that  in  general  the  Chinese  are  a  numerous, 
a  troublesome,  and  a  ridiculous  folk.  The  aver- 
age more  or  less  educated  American  is  therefore 
much  superior  to  the  uneducated  Chinese,  for  his 
mental  attitude  is  that  of  intelligent  ignorance. 

It  is  perhaps  difficult  for  anyone  but  a  scientist 
to  explain,  or  to  understand  when  it  is  explained, 
what  constitutes  a  "  race."  But  neither  the  sci- 
entist nor  anyone  else  has  the  smallest  doubt  that 
the  Anglo-Saxon  "  race  "  is  equipped  with  a  race- 
prejudice  probably  not  matched,  certainly  not  ex- 
celled, elsewhere.  There  is  in  our  minds  no  ques- 
tion that  We  are  the  "  heirs  of  all  the  ages,  in  the 
foremost  files  of  time,"  the  last  and  finest  product 
of  age-long  evolution,  and  in  a  word  the  World's 
Last  Hope.     After  Us  the  deluge! 

It  is  somewhat  singular  that  a  country  which  be- 
gan its  career  with  the  dramatic  production  of  a 
document  like  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
which  announces  to  mankind  that  "  We  hold  these 
truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created 
free  and  equal,"  should,  after  attaining  such  confi- 
dence in  the  abstract  proposition  (however  inter- 
preted), find  so  much  difficulty  in  acting  upon  it  in 
the  concrete.  While  it  is  a  superseded  after-dinner 
pleasantry  that  our  remote  forebears  "  first  fell  upon 
their  knees  and  then  fell  upon  the  aborigines,"  it 


148     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

is  much  more  than  an  epigram  to  say,  in  the  phrase 
of  Helen  Hunt,  that  the  record  of  our  treatment  of 
the  North  American  Indians  extends  far  beyond  "  A 
Century  of  Dishonour  "  down  to  the  latest  scientific 
theft  of  "  Reservations."  Our  admirable  Lake  Mo- 
honk  Conferences  and  other  agencies  have  done  their 
best,  and  a  very  efficient  best  it  has  been,  to  introduce 
saner  and  righteous  methods;  but  the  disgrace  of 
the  past  is  indelible.  Our  dealings  with  the  black 
man  are  even  worse  than  those  with  the  red  man, 
and  the  ensuing  evils  constitute  the  gravest  danger 
on  the  horizon  of  the  Republic. 

At  the  root  there  has  always  been  a  more  or  less 
prevalent  contempt  for  the  "  red-skins,"  epitomised 
in  the  venerable  dictum  that  "  the  only  good  Indian 
is  a  dead  Indian."  There  is  a  well-nigh  irresistible 
propensity  to  pronounce  the  race  name  of  the  negro 
with  the  letter  "  g  "  doubled,  and  to  couple  with  it 
an  epithet  implying  that  the  individual  spoken  of 
has  been  judicially  condemned.  The  same  point 
of  view  is  that  from  which  all  other  "  inferior 
races "  are  too  often  contemplated.  Natives  of 
the  south  of  Europe  are  compendiously  termed  "  da- 
goes"; a  Japanese  is  styled  "a  Jap"  (an  expres- 
sion which  they  very  properly  resent)  ;  while  the 
Chinese  is,  as  it  were,  ex  officio  "  John,"  coupled 
with  "  Chinaman  "  (a  deprecatory  patronymic  for 
which  there  is  no  analogy  and  no  necessity),  or  with 
delicate  irony  he  is  mentioned  as  "  a  Chink."  In 
each  of  these  cases  words  are  real  things  embodying 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     149 

a  lofty  indifference,  not  to  say  an  insolent  con- 
tempt 

In  a  similar  manner,  we  are  in  the  constant  habit 
of  speaking  of  distant  and  unfamiliar  localities  as 
"  out  there,"  as  if  they  were  simply  points  in  the 
interstellar  spaces  destitute  of  lines  of  latitude  or 
longitude  by  which  they  might  be  defined.  We 
will  not  take  the  trouble  to  master  the  speech  of 
other  nations  (contenting  ourselves  with  charac- 
terising each  in  turn  as  "  a  lingo  "),  and  if  foreign- 
ers cannot  speak  English  it  is  not  uncommon  to 
hear  them  criticised  as  intellectual  bankrupts.  "  I 
asked  that  Russian,"  said  a  well-bred  American  to 
the  writer  of  these  lines,  "  when  the  bridge  would 
be  opened,  but  the  fool  couldn't  talk  English."  Is 
it  not  wise  to  recall  the  reply  of  a  Constantinople 
dragoman,  stung  by  a  similar  comment  made  for 
similar  cause?  "You  spik  Turkish?"  "No." 
"  You  spik  Greek  ?  "  "  No."  "  You  spik  Arabic  ? " 
**No."  "You  spik  Italian?"  "No."  "You  spik 
Spanish?"  "No."  "  You  spik  French ? "  "  No,  no, 
no,  I  don't  speak  any  of  them."  "  Well,  s'pose  I 
fool,  you  six  times  fool! "  One  of  the  qualities  for 
which  we  are  least  distinguished  abroad  (or  at  home) 
is  self-depreciation  and  modesty.  The  presupposi- 
tion, perhaps  entirely  unconscious,  of  our  unques- 
tioned superiority  in  almost  everything,  is  often 
almost  axiomatic.  This  is  not  precisely  the  same  as 
the  brag  and  bluster  of  the  ante-bellum  days,  when 
it  seemed  to  be  supposed  that  America  could  "  beat 


I50     CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

all  Creation,"  yet  it  is  not  so  far  removed.  In  the 
minds  of  large  numbers,  more  especially  of  the  ed- 
ucated and  travelled  class,  this  assumption  does  not 
exist,  and  in  many  cases,  although  it  has  a  root,  it 
has  the  good  taste  not  to  show  above  ground.  But 
among  the  people  at  large  it  appears  to  prevail 
extensively  and  intensively  to  a  surprising  and 
depressing  extent.  If  anything  could  mitigate  or 
cure  it,  world-knowledge  and  world  responsibilities 
might  be  expected  to  do  so.  No  other  national  trait 
tends  to  make  Americans  more  disliked  or  more 
ridiculous.  The  tone  of  the  stronger  and  the  saner 
American  journals  shows  an  increasing  perception 
of  America's  real  greatness  and  opportunities;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  many  newspapers  and  numerous 
speeches  in  Congress  and  elsewhere  show  how  far 
just  views  are  from  being  universal. 

The  magnitude  of  the  work  which  has  been  done 
in  subduing  a  virgin  continent,  the  restless  and  un- 
tamable energy  which  has  accomplished  so  much  in 
so  short  a  time,  is  a  wonderful  spectacle,  upon  which 
we  may  rightly  dwell  with  satisfaction  and  gratula- 
tion.  But  in  listening  to  some  of  our  people  dilate 
upon  this  topic  one  might  at  times  almost  gain  the 
impression  that  in  past  ages  a  committee  of  eminent 
brevet  American  citizens  had  first  deliberated  on 
the  necessity  for  more  room  for  expansion,  and 
that  thereupon  the  whole  American  continent,  moun- 
tains, plains,  rivers,  and  waterfalls,  had  been  cre- 
ated   from    designs    furnished   by    themselves.    In 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     151 

less  than  a  century  we  have,  it  is  true,  "  conquered 
the  wilderness."  But  we  have  wasted  the  bound- 
less forests,  destroying  manifold  more  timber  than 
we  have  utilised,  thus  drying  up  brooks  and  rivers 
that  were  perennial.  By  reckless  and  slovenly  cul- 
tivation we  have  exhausted  millions  of  acres  of  once 
fertile  land,  we  have  squandered  (and  are  still 
squandering)  the  natural  fertilisers  of  the  soil,  turn- 
ing the  nitrates  into  the  water-courses,  so  that,  in 
Victor  Hugo's  phrase,  pestilence  springs  from  the 
streams  and  hunger  from  the  furrow.  Of  these  by- 
products of  our  "civilisation"  we  do  not  now 
boast.  We  gladly  expend  scores  of  millions  of  dol- 
lars to  undo  a  fractional  per  cent,  of  the  needless, 
wilful,  inexcusable  havoc  which  we  have  wrought 
and  are  still  working  in  a  continent  of  marvellous 
resources,  to  which  if  we  had  any  claim  at  all  it 
was  because  we  could  use  and  develop  it  as  a  trust 
for  ages  and  generations  to  come. 

A  people  with  a  record  like  this  are  manifestly 
at  a  disadvantage  when  confronted  with  Orientals, 
who  have  occupied  their  ancestral  seats  for  three 
or  four  millenniums,  who  are  reasonably  contented, 
and  who  have  no  consciousness  of  "  earth-hunger." 
It  is  a  distinct  advantage  to  citizens  of  the  United 
States  in  dealing  with  China  that  our  several  treaties 
with  that  Empire  have  been  honourable  to  America 
and  just  to  China.  (Detailed  information  in  re- 
gard to  them  may  be  found  in  the  Hon.  John  W. 
Foster's  "  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,''  from 


152     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

whose  work  extracts  have  been  freely  made.)  The 
first  of  the  series  was  negotiated  by  a  shrewd  law- 
yer, the  Hon.  Caleb  Cushing,  who  was  fully  a  match 
for  the  procrastinating  and  obstructive  Chinese. 
The  letter  of  instructions  was  penned  by  Daniel 
Webster,  then  Secretary  of  State,  and  "  shows  his 
wide  grasp  of  public  questions."  The  accompany- 
ing letter  which  President  Tyler  sent  to  the  Em- 
peror of  China,  however,  is  not  a  State  paper  of 
which  Americans  have  occasion  to  be  proud,  and 
many  will  agree  with  the  comment  of  Captain  Brink- 
ley  :  "  Every  historian  of  China's  foreign  relations 
has  placed  ineffable  conceit  at  the  head  of  her  cat- 
alogue of  sins.  But  no  document  known  to  have 
emanated  from  the  Chinese  Court  is  permeated  with 
such  a  fine  tone  of  patronising  superiority  as  the 
autograph  letter  written  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  the  Grand  Khan  in  Peking,  on  the 
1 2th  of  July,  1843.  Mr.  Tyler  undertook  to  convey 
information  as  well  as  admonition  to  his  *  good 
friend  *  Tao  Kuang.  He  told  him  that  the  sea 
alone  divided  America  and  China ;  that  the  latter  had 
*  millions  and  millions  of  subjects,'  and  that  Ameri- 
can citizens  '  leaving  the  mouth  of  one  of  their  great 
rivers,  and  going  constantly  toward  the  setting  sun, 
sailed  to  Japan  and  to  the  Yellow  Sea';  and  he 
told  him  also  that  *  the  rising  sun  looked  upon  the 
great  rivers  and  great  mountains  of  China,'  while 
*the  setting  sun  looked  upon  rivers  and  mountains 
equally  large  in  the  United  States,'  which  is  much  the 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     153 

sort  of  language  that  Fenimore  Cooper  would  have 
put  into  the  mouth  of  a  *  great  white  chief '  address- 
ing a  Choctaw  or  an  Apache.  Then  the  President, 
continuing  his  courteous  confidences,  informed  his 
*  good  friend '  that  *  the  Chinese  loved  to  trade  with 
our  people,  and  to  sell  them  tea  and  silk,  for  which 
our  people  paid  silver,  and  sometimes  other  arti- 
cles,' e.  g.,  opium ;  and  then,  rising  above  primers  of 
geography  and  commerce,  Mr.  Tyler  admonished 
the  Grand  Khan  that  *  There  shall  be  rules.  Our 
minister,  Caleb  Cushing,  is  authorised  to  make  a 
treaty.  Let  it  be  just.  Let  there  be  no  unfair  ad- 
vantage on  either  side.  Let  the  treaty  be  signed  by 
your  own  Imperial  hand.  It  shall  be  signed  by  mine, 
and  the  authority  of  our  great  council,  the  Senate. 
And  so,  may  your  health  be  good,  and  may  peace 
reign ! '  To  the  note  struck  clearly  in  this  diapason 
of  dignified  condescension,  the  note  of  justice,  Amer- 
ica's dealings  with  Eastern  countries  have  always 
been  attimed.  It  is  true  that  she  practises  against  the 
Chinese  an  illiberal  exclusiveness,  which,  if  prac- 
tised by  them  against  American  citizens,  would  be 
punished  at  the  cannon's  mouth ;  and  it  is  also  true 
that  to  China's  demands  for  redress  for  murderous 
outrages  of  which  her  subjects  are  the  victims, 
Washington  replies  by  pretexts  of  domestic  admin- 
istration which,  were  they  advanced  by  Peking, 
would  be  laughed  to  scorn.  But  these  are  the  flaws 
in  the  jewel.  Chinese  and  Japanese  alike  have 
learned  by  experience  that  the  United  States  Govern- 


154     CHINA    AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

ment  may  be  implicitly  trusted  to  do  in  any  inter- 
national complication  not  merely  what  is  right  and 
just,  but  also  what  is  generous.  It  is  a  fine  record, 
and  that  it  should  have  for  its  frontispiece  the 
strange  letter  of  President  Tyler  to  Emperor  Tao 
Kuang  is  a  striking  incongruity."  *  A  year  later,  re- 
marks another  British  writer,  "  a  treaty  of  peace, 
amity,  and  commerce  was  concluded,  which,  it  must 
be  confessed,  was  far  in  advance  of  its  British  pred- 
ecessor. In  its  thirty-six  clauses  ample  provision 
is  made  for  every  possible  contingency  which  could 
then  be  foreseen,  and  for  a  period  of  sixteen  years 
until  the  signature  and  ratification  of  the  Tientsin 
treaties  the  Gushing  convention  served  as  the  basis 
for  the  settlement  of  nearly  all  disputes  arising  be- 
tween foreigners  in  China." 

Mr.  Foster  cites  the  testimony  of  a  contemporary 
British  authority,  who  wrote :  "  The  United  States 
Government  in  their  treaty  with  China,  and  in  vig- 
ilant protection  of  their  subjects  at  Canton,  have 
evinced  far  better  diplomacy,  and  more  attention  to 
substantial  interests  than  we  have  done,  although 
it  has  not  cost  them  as  many  groats  as  we  have  spent 
guineas,  while  their  position  in  China  is  really  more 
advantageous  and  respected  than  that  of  England, 
after  all  our  sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure."  After 
the  negotiations  conducted  by  Mr.  Cushing  were 
once  under  way,  there  was  no  serious  difficulty  in 
concluding  the  Wang  Hsia  treaty,  so  named  from 
the  place  of  its  signature  in  a  suburb  of  Macao. 

1  Oriental  Series,  "China,"  vol.  xi.,  pp.  173-175. 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     155 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  during  all  this  period 
"  Mr.  Gushing  had  not  set  foot  on  Chinese  territory, 
nor  had  he  held  personal  intercourse  with  a  single 
high  Chinese  official,  except  the  embassy,  up  to  the 
time  of  signing  the  treaty,  and  that  instrument  had 
been  negotiated  and  executed  on  foreign  (Portu- 
guese) territory." 

The  second  treaty  between  the  United  States  and 
China  was  arranged  in  1858  at  Tientsin,  just  after 
that  of  Russia,  and  in  advance  of  those  of  Great 
Britain  and  France.  It  granted  diplomatic  privi- 
leges, enlarged  trade  and  travel,  and  religious  tol- 
eration, but  owing  to  the  intervening  war  with 
Great  Britain  the  ratification  was  postponed  till 
the  following  year.  In  1867,  Mr.  Anson  Burlin- 
game,  the  United  States  Minister  to  China,  who 
after  a  period  of  six  years  was  about  to  resign  his 
office,  was  suddenly  appointed  Envoy  of  the  Chinese 
Government  with  the  highest  rank,  to  visit  all  the 
treaty  Powers  as  high  minister  empowered  to  at- 
tend to  every  question  arising  between  China  and 
those  countries.  Much  natural,  and  indeed  inevita- 
ble, jealousy  was  felt  in  Europe  at  the  selection  of 
an  American  for  this  unique  position;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  great  hopes  were  entertained  of  the  out- 
come ;  but  they  were  frustrated  by  the  death  of  Mr. 
Burlingame  at  St.  Petersburg  before  anything  of 
permanent  importance  had  been  accomplished.  "  The 
only  substantial  result  of  the  mission  was  the  treaty 
which  it  negotiated  with  the  Government  of  the 


156     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

United  States,"  which  was  drafted  by  Secretary 
Seward.  "  It  stipulated  the  territorial  integrity  of 
China  by  disavowing  any  right  to  interfere  with 
its  eminent  domain  or  sovereign  jurisdiction  over 
its  subjects  and  property;  it  recognised  the  right  of 
China  to  regulate  its  internal  trade  not  affected  by 
treaty;  provided  for  the  appointment  of  consuls; 
secured  exemption  from  persecution  and  disability 
on  account  of  religion;  recognised  the  right  of  vol- 
untary emigration ;  granted  the  privilege  of  schools 
and  colleges;  disavowed  the  intention  to  interfere 
with  the  domestic  administration  of  China  in  re- 
spect to  public  improvements,  but  expressed  the 
willingness  of  the  United  States  to  aid  in  such  en- 
terprises when  requested  by  China."  The  special 
feature  of  the  Burlingame  treaty  of  1868  was  its 
emigration  agreement.  Article  V.  "  cordially  recog- 
nised the  inherent  and  inalienable  right  of  man  to 
change  his  home  and  allegiance,  and  also  the  mutual 
advantage  of  the  free  immigration  and  emigration 
of  their  citizens  and  subjects  respectively  from  one 
country  to  the  other  for  purposes  of  curiosity,  of 
trade,  or  as  permanent  residents  " ;  and  Article  VI. 
provided  that  the  citizens  and  subjects,  respectively, 
"  shall  enjoy  the  same  privileges,  immunities,  or 
exemptions  in  respect  to  travel  or  residence  as  may 
there  be  enjoyed  by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  the 
most  favoured  nation."  The  President  in  communi- 
cating notice  of  it  to  Congress  spoke  of  it  as  "  a  lib- 
eral and  auspicious  treaty."    There  was  a  delay  in 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     157 

its  ratification  by  the  Chinese  Government,  and 
serious  uneasiness  was  felt  in  the  United  States  lest 
it  should  fail.  "  Under  President  Grant's  direction. 
Secretary  Fish  instructed  the  American  Minister  in 
Peking  to  exert  his  influence  with  the  Chinese  au- 
thorities to  bring  about  its  early  ratification."  He 
wrote :  "  Many  considerations  call  for  this,  besides 
those  which  may  be  deduced  from  what  has  gone 
before  in  this  instruction.  Every  month  brings 
thousands  of  Chinese  immigrants  to  the  Pacific 
coast.  Already  they  have  crossed  the  great  moun- 
tains and  are  beginning  to  be  found  in  the  interior 
of  the  continent.  By  their  assiduity,  patience,  and  fi- 
delity, and  by  their  intelligence,  they  earn  the  good- 
will and  confidence  of  those  who  employ  them.  We 
have  good  reason  to  think  this  thing  will  continue 
and  increase  " ;  and  the  Secretary  said  it  was  wel- 
comed by  the  country.  Ten  years  after  this  treaty 
was  signed,  President  Hayes,  in  a  message  to  Con- 
gress, thus  spoke  of  its  leading  provision :  "  Un- 
questionably the  adhesion  of  the  Government  of 
China  to  these  liberal  principles  of  freedom  in  emi- 
gration, with  which  we  were  so  familiar  and  with 
which  we  were  so  well  satisfied,  was  a  great  ad- 
vance toward  opening  that  Empire  to  our  civilisation 
and  religion,  and  gave  promise  in  the  future  of 
greater  practical  results  in  the  diffusion  throughout 
that  great  population  of  our  arts  and  industries, 
our  manufactures,  our  material  improvements,  and 
the  sentiments  of  government  and  religion  which 


158     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

seem  to  us  so  important  to  the  welfare  of  man- 
kind." But  it  was  not  long  after  the  ratification  of 
this  treaty  that  strong  opposition  to  the  immigra- 
tion of  Chinese  into  the  United  States  began  to 
manifest  itself,  on  the  ground  that  they  are  too 
industrious  and  too  frugal;  that  by  their  competi- 
tion they  drove  out  white  labour,  underbid  and  un- 
derlived  all  Occidental  peoples;  that  they  sent  their 
wages  out  of  the  country;  were  segregated  in  over- 
crowded and  filthy  sections  of  every  city  where  they 
were  numerous;  and  that  they  were  unassimilable 
and  generally  undesirable.  The  sentiment  had  be- 
come so  strong  that  in  1876  an  appeal  was  made  to 
Congress  to  abrogate  the  treaty,  and  the  report  of 
the  committe  appointed,  with  the  accompanying  tes- 
timony, constitutes  a  volume  of  over  twelve  hundred 
pages. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  argue  the  question  of 
Chinese  immigation.  On  the  count  of  industry 
and  frugality,  which  the  old  proverb  affirmed — in 
this  case  erroneously — to  be  the  two  hands  of  for- 
tune, they  were  immediately  convicted.  The  evi- 
dence of  the  effect  of  Chinese  labour  on  the  demand 
for  white  labour  was,  and  still  is,  contradictory,  but 
that  large  regions  of  the  United  States  have  long 
been  and  are  still  suffering  for  the  lack  of  labour  of 
which  there  appears  to  be  no  adequate  supply,  is 
demonstrable,  and  indeed  obvious,  even  to  an  unob- 
servant traveller. 

The  relevancy  of  the  argument  so  dear  to  the 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     159 

former  San  Francisco  sand-lot  orator,  and  now  in- 
herited by  the  labour  unions,  that  the  Chinese  send 
their  money  abroad,  is  somewhat  difficult  of  compre- 
hension, in  view  of  the  proved  fact  that  they  are 
among  the  most  constant  patrons  of  the  transporta- 
tion companies,  that  they  almost  invariably  spend 
their  money  freely,  and  that  it  is  not  disputed  that 
whatever  becomes  of  their  wages,  the  product  of 
their  labour,  which  is  all  that  is  paid  for,  remains. 
This  issue,  moreover,  is  not  apparently  raised  in 
regard  to  any  other  immigrants,  or  it  might  go  hard 
with  some  of  them.  All  that  has  been  said  of  the 
evils  of  "  Chinatown  "  in  many  of  our  large  cities 
is  undoubtedly  true,  the  forces  of  both  Oriental  and 
Occidental  degeneracy  being  here  at  their  maxi- 
mum ;  but  it  seldom  seems  to  occur  to  critics  of  this 
state  of  things  that  their  existence  is  prima  facie  a 
confession,  and  indeed  a  proclamation,  of  American 
inefficiency  and  incompetency  (not  to  say  imbecil- 
ity) in  the  administration  of  cities.  In  support  of 
this  self-evident  truth,  take,  for  example,  the  com- 
ment of  one  of  our  latest  and  leading  authorities 
upon  municipal  police  problems,  who  says :  "  Chi- 
natown would  not  long  exist  if  there  was  any  really 
honest  public  opinion  that  wanted  it  driven  out; 
but  it  has  white  friends,  influential  ones — the  real 
estate  owner,  the  men  in  politics,  members  of  rich 
societies,  mistaken  philanthropists,  a  little  regiment 
of  lawyers  who  make  money  out  of  it,  newspaper 
men  and  magazine  writers  who  exploit  it,  sight- 


i6o     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

seers  who  think  it  represents  Hfe  in  China,  and  some 
people  who  distinctly  think  that  it  is  a  decidedly  pic- 
turesque addition  to  the  town  and  a  good  place  to 
take  a  country  friend  once  in  a  while  and  let  him  see 
something  old  and  Oriental.  If  an  honest  police  cap- 
tain, therefore,  attempts  to  put  a  heavy  hand  on  the 
place,  there  is  at  once  an  outbreak  of  sympathy  for 
these  innocent  and  honest-looking  Chinamen,  long 
articles  in  the  newspapers  about  warring  *  tongs,' 
and  about  good  Chinamen,  bad  Chinamen,  Christian 
Chinamen,  and  police  brutality.  Then,  too,  there 
is  the  suspicion,  unfortunately  founded  on  too  many 
facts,  that  in  times  past  corrupt  police  officials  have 
derived  large  revenues  from  this  rank  and  ill- 
smelling  little  town."^ 

A  comprehensive  study  of  the  methods  which 
have  been  adopted  in  British  colonies,  a  sympa- 
thetic co-operation  with  the  best  elements  among  the 
Chinese  themselves,  and  with  the  heads  of  the  Chi- 
nese immigration  companies,  the  service  of  compe- 
tent, fearless,  and,  above  all,  incorruptible  officials, 
backed  by  an  intelligent,  law-abiding  people,  might 
have  prevented  or  at  least  materially  modified  such 
conditions  as  have  disgraced  American  cities.  That 
there  is  more  or  less  of  a  gulf  between  the  Chinese 
and  the  Occidental,  it  is  one  of  the  objects  of  the 
present  volume  not  to  deny,  but  to  emphasise;  but 
that  it  is  not  a  gulf  which  is  "  fixed  "  by  a  law 

2 "  Guarding  a  Great  City,"  by  William  McAdoo,  Police 
Commissioner,  New  York  City.    New  York,  1906,  pp.  179-180. 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     i6i 

of  Nature  is  evident  from  the  alteration  of  Chinese 
types  found  in  the  Straits  Settlements,  Australia, 
and  especially  in  our  own  Hawaiian  Islands,  where 
may  be  found  as  promising  specimens  of  the  Chinese 
race  as  anywhere  in  the  world. 

The  result  of  the  agitation  of  the  question  of 
Chinese  immigration  was  the  enactment  by  the 
Forty-fifth  Congress  (1878)  of  a  law  which  was 
little  short  of  absolute  exclusion,  and  provided  for 
the  abolition  of  Articles  V.  and  VI.  of  the  Bur- 
lingame  treaty  (it  having  been  found  that  it  was 
inconvenient  for  Americans  any  longer  to  cordially 
recognise  "  the  inherent  and  inalienable  right  of 
man  to  change  his  home  and  allegiance,  and  also 
the  mutual  advantage  of  the  free  immigration  and 
emigration  of  their  citizens  and  subjects,  respec- 
tively, from  one  country  to  the  other  for  purposes 
of  curiosity,  of  trade,  or  as  permanent  residents." 
Had  it  been  China  that  was  guilty  of  such  disregard 
of  international  obligations,  much  more  would  have 
been  heard  about  the  matter;  but  China  had  not 
then  come  to  international  self -consciousness. 

In  1880,  a  special  Commission  negotiated  a  new 
treaty,  which  gave  the  United  States  the  "  power 
to  regulate,  limit,  or  suspend  immigration,  but  not 
absolutely  to  prohibit  it,"  the  prohibition  applying 
only  to  labourers,  others  being  permitted  to  enter 
freely  and  to  reside  in  the  United  States.  By  way, 
as  it  were,  of  illustrating  the  American  conception 
of  the  binding  force  of  treaty  stipulations,  in  1882 


1 62     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

Congress  passed  a  law  prohibiting  or  suspending 
the  immigration  of  Chinese  labourers  for  twenty 
years,  but  the  act  was  vetoed  by  President  Arthur 
on  the  ground  that  a  prohibition  of  immigration 
for  such  period  was  in  violation  of  the  assurance  of 
the  Commission  which  negotiated  it,  that  the  large 
powers  conferred  on  Congress  "  would  be  exercised 
by  our  Grovernment  with  a  wise  discretion,  in  a 
spirit  of  reciprocal  and  sincere  friendship,  and  with 
entire  justice."  Congress  thereupon  modified  the 
law  by  suspending  the  immigration  of  labourers  for, 
ten  years.  While  a  new  treaty  with  China  was  in 
process  of  negotiation  to  provide  for  still  greater 
restrictions  on  the  return  of  immigrants  who  had 
once  been  in  America,  under  pressure  of  the  labour 
unions  and  in  the  stress  of  a  political  campaign,  a 
law  known  as  the  Scott  act  was  passed,  absolutely 
prohibiting  the  admission  of  Chinese  labourers  to 
the  United  States,  thus  once  more  violating  treaty 
obligations,  by  which  (in  the  case  at  least  of  China) 
we  proclaimed  ourselves  to  be  no  longer  bound. 
This  was  fortified  by  a  new  treaty,  which  China 
good-naturedly  consented  to  sign,  prohibiting  the 
admission  of  Chinese  labourers  for  ten  years.  Re- 
strictive legislation  of  the  most  radical  character 
was  then  attempted,  which  would  in  practice  have 
prohibited  scholars,  teachers,  and  travellers  from 
setting  foot  on  our  soil.  The  bill  embodying  these 
stringent  provisions  was  defeated,  and  for  it  was 
substituted  another  continuing  in  force  existing  laws 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     163 

and  regulations  not  inconsistent  with  the  treaty,  until 
1904,  or  until  a  new  treaty  should  be  made. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  add  one  more  to  the 
many  essays  and  volumes  which  have  been  written 
on  the  subject  of  Asiatic  immigration  into  Occiden- 
tal lands,  for  the  question  concerns  not  alone  the 
United  States,  but  Canada,  Mexico,  Cuba,  Central 
and  South  America,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand. 
The  object  of  this  chapter,  however,  is  much  less 
ambitious,  but  much  more  comprehensive,  namely, 
to  point  out  that  the  past  methods  of  dealing  with 
the  subject  on  the  part  of  the  people  and  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  are  radically  wrong,  and 
that  unless  we  are  to  be  involved  in  serious  future 
trouble  they  must  be  changed. 

Let  us  specify  four  particulars: 

I.  The  treatment  of  Chinese  labourers  in  the 
United  States.  The  coming  of  Chinese  at  our  ur- 
gent invitation  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  gold 
in  California  was  due  to  the  absolute  necessity  for 
cheaper  labour.  They  were  invaluable  in  every  ca- 
pacity, as  they  always  have  been  in  each  of  the 
many  lands  to  which  they  have  migrated.  The 
steamer  companies  in  every  way  encouraged  and 
facilitated  emigration.  Without  the  Chinese  the 
continental  railways  could  not  have  been  built. 
There  was  a  gradual  expansion  of  Chinese  activi- 
ties in  all  forms  of  useful  service  in  towns  and  in 
settlements,  but  the  Chinese  also  took  up  abandoned 
workings  in  mines  and  streams  and  made  them  pay. 


l64     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

But  race  prejudice  soon  got  upon  their  trail.  Chi- 
nese testimony  was  not  admissible  in  courts  of  law, 
leaving  them  a  helpless  prey  to  violence  which  was 
never  lacking.  A  Chinese  was  taxed  over  and  over 
again  on  the  same  mining  property  by  armed  and 
lawless  men  whom  he  had  no  power  to  resist.  His 
legally  acquired  mining  claims  were  raided,  his 
dwellings  destroyed,  whole  settlements  broken  up, 
and  countless  unprovoked  and  brutal  murders  com- 
mitted not  only  in  the  hamlets  and  towns  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast,  but  in  the  large  cities  as  well.  In  Rock 
Spring,  Wyoming,  all  the  Chinese  residents,  five 
hundred  in  number,  were  driven  out  of  town  and 
eleven  killed  outright,  while  many  others  probably 
died  of  their  wounds  after  being  chased  to  the  hills, 
where  food  was  kindly  sent  them  by  the  authorities. 
In  Tacoma  about  seven  hundred  Chinese  were  un- 
lawfully expelled  by  an  anti-Chinese  mob  in  No- 
vember, 1885,  ^"d  but  for  the  firmness  of  a  few 
individuals  the  same  outrage  would  have  been 
perpetrated  a  few  months  later  in  Seattle.  A  pam- 
phlet published  in  San  Francisco,  in  1905,  repro- 
duces accounts,  ranging  through  many  years,  of 
several  score  of  incidents  of  this  sort  from  local 
journals  in  California,  Oregon,  Washington,  Ne- 
vada, and  other  places,  the  editors  in  many  towns 
being  by  mere  self-respect  compelled  to  take  the  part 
of  the  persecuted  Chinese,  while  others  shamelessly 
defended  every  atrocity.  "  The  Supreme  Court  of 
California,  in  1855,  made  a  decision,  in  order  to 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     165 

exclude  all  Chinese  testimony  against  white  men, 
which  briefly  amounts  to  this:  First,  a  native 
of  China  is  an  African  negro;  second,  a  native  of 
China  is  an  American  Indian;  third,  a  native  of 
China  has  no  right  which  an  American  white  man 
is  bound  to  respect;  therefore  murderers  and  rob- 
bers of  any  nation  may  commit  what  crime  they 
please  against  such  without  concern  as  to  American 
courts."  * 

The  total  number  of  Chinese  victims  of  Ameri- 
can violence  during  these  years  will  never  be  known, 
but  it  was  probably  several  hundreds. 

There  is  no  particular  in  which  the  worst  Boxer 
atrocities  in  China  were  not  equalled  and  exceeded 
by  what  has  been  perpetrated  in  many  cities  and 
settlements  of  Christian  America.  Great  military 
expeditions  and  a  heavy  indemnity  avenged  the  for- 
mer.   Almost  all  the  latter  were  entirely  unpun- 

•The  present  Minister  from  China  to  the  United  States, 
in  an  address  at  Chicago  a  little  more  than  a  year  ago,  made 
the  following  statement:  "More  Chinese  subjects  have  been 
murdered  by  mobs  in  the  United  States  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years  than  all  the  Americans  who  have  been  mur- 
dered in  China  in  similar  riots.  ...  In  every  instance 
where  Americans  have  suffered  from  mobs,  the  authorities 
have  made  reparation  for  the  losses,  and  rarely  has  the  pun- 
ishment of  death  failed  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  guilty 
offenders.  On  the  other  hand,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I 
cannot  recall  a  single  instance  where  the  penalty  of  death 
has  been  visited  on  any  member  of  the  mobs  in  the  United 
States  guilty  of  the  death  of  Chinese,  and  in  only  two 
instances  out  of  many  has  indemnity  been  paid  for  the  losses 
sustained  by  the  Chinese." 


1 66     CHINA    AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

ished.  The  criminals  could  not  be  brought  to  trial, 
could  not  be  identified  if  tried ;  when  their  guilt  was 
proved  they  were  frequently  allowed  to  escape,  and 
if  convicted  the  sentences  were  seldom  if  ever  car- 
ried into  effect.^  The  Chinese  bore  all  this  with 
most  exemplary  patience.  A  remonstrance  pre- 
pared for  presentation  to  Congress  in  the  name  of 
the  Chinese  merchants  of  San  Francisco  (a  trans- 
lation of  which  is  printed  in  Dr.  Speer's  volume) 
is  a  temperate,  dignified,  and  forcible  document,  ap- 
pealing to  the  rulers  of  this  country  as  reasonable 
men  to  govern  the  land  according  to  the  will  of 
Heaven,  and  to  put  an  end  to  the  crimes  and  atroc- 
ities, of  which  a  long  and  dark  catalogue  is  given. 
It  is  impossible  for  any  intelligent  and  candid  reader 
to  examine  the  testimony  in  regard  to  American 
treatment  of  the  Chinese  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury without  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  no 
country  able  to  fight  would  have  submitted  to  such 
chronic  insult  and  outrage  without  going  to  war  to 
avenge  it. 

2.  The  treatment  of  Chinese  labourers  in  the 
United  States  has  been  bad,  but  from  the  Chinese 
point  of  view  that  of  Chinese  merchants,  students, 
and  travellers  has  been  even  worse.  Because  many 
Chinese  contrived  to  evade  the  laws,  United  States 
officials   frequently  appeared  determined  to  show 

*"The  Oldest  and  the  Newest  Empire:  China  and  the 
United  States,"  by  William  Speer,  D.  D.,  Hartford,  1870,  p. 
577.  Detailed  accounts  of  these  events  with  appropriate  com- 
ments and  suggestions  abound  in  this  volume. 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     167 

Chinese  that  this  great  Republic  is  not  to  be  trifled 
with,  upon  the  evident  assumption  that  it  is  better 
to  exclude  ten  Chinese  entitled  to  enter  the  coun- 
try rather  than  admit  one  whose  right  was  doubt- 
ful. Chinese  merchants,  scholars,  and  travellers 
have  often  been  deliberately  classed  as  labourers,  al- 
though distinguishable  at  a  glance;  they  have  been 
immured  in  the  unsanitary  and  often  filthy  detention 
sheds  of  San  Francisco  and  subjected  to  the  humil- 
iation— unheard  of  in  China — of  being  stripped 
naked  and  measured  by  the  Bertillon  system  as  if 
they  were  convicted  criminals.  The  facts  have  been 
often  related  in  detail  in  American  newspapers,  mag- 
azines, and  reviews,  and  may  be  supposed  to  be 
familiar  to  all  who  care  to  know  them.  The  late 
Taotai  Wang  Kai-ka  contributed  an  article  to  the 
"  North  American  Review,"  for  March,  1904,  under 
the  suggestive  title:  "A  Menace  to  America's 
Oriental  Trade." 

Mr.  Chester  Holcombe,  formerly  Secretary  of 
the  United  States  Legation  in  Peking,  in  an  arti- 
cle in  "The  Outlook"  (April  23,  1904),  mentions 
among  other  illustrations  of  our  methods  the  case 
of  a  Chinese  merchant  in  San  Francisco  who  re- 
turned to  China  to  get  a  bride,  only  to  find  that  she 
was  not  allowed  to  land  in  California.  "Another 
Chinese  merchant  and  wife,  of  unquestioned  stand- 
ing in  San  Francisco,  made  a  trip  to  China,  and 
while  there  a  child  was  born.  On  returning  to 
their  home  in  America  the  sapient  officials  could  in- 


i68     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

terpose  no  objection  to  the  readmission  of  the  par- 
ents, but  peremptorily  refused  to  admit  the  three- 
months-old  baby,  as,  never  having  been  in  this 
country,  it  had  no  right  to  enter  it!  Neither  of 
these  preposterous  decisions  could  be  charged  to 
the  stupidity  or  malice  of  the  local  officials,  for  both 
were  appealed  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in 
Washington  and  were  officially  sustained  by  him  as 
in  accordance  with  law,  though  in  the  latter  case 
the  Secretary,  the  Hon.  Daniel  Manning,  in  approv- 
ing the  action,  had  the  courage  and  good  sense  to 
write,  '  Bum  all  this  correspondence,  let  the  poor 
little  baby  go  ashore,  and  don't  make  a  fool  of  your- 
self.' "  « 

Miss  Luella  Miner  has  devoted  the  greater  part 
of  a  volume,  called  "  Two  Heroes  of  Cathay,"  to 
detailing  the  treatment  accorded  to  two  young  Chi- 
nese students  who  had  suffered  in  the  Boxer  out- 
break in  Shansi  (and  one  of  whom,  at  imminent 
risk  to  himself,  brought  the  first  authentic  informa- 
tion concerning  the  fate  of  the  American  mission- 
aries in  the  cities  of  Tai-ku  and  Fen-chou  fu).  It 
is  important  to  notice  that  these  students  were  pro- 
vided with  formal  certificates  duly  issued  to  them  by 
the  American  consul  at  Tientsin,  and  also  with  a  spe- 
cial document  from  H.  E.  the  Marquis  Li  Hung- 
chang,  the  highest  and  most  influential  official  in 
China.     All  these,  however,  counted  for  less  than 

^  This  last  case  is  also  cited  in  "  New  Forces  in  Old  China," 
by  Arthur  Judson  Brown,  D.  D.,  p.  i6o. 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     169 

nothing  upon  their  arrival  in  America,  where  "  they 
were  treated  by  the  United  States  officials  at  San 
Francisco  and  other  cities  with  a  suspicion  and  bru- 
tality that  were  more  worthy  of  Turkey  than  of  free, 
Christian  America."  "  Arriving  at  the  Golden 
Gate,  September  12,  1901,  it  was  not  until  January 
10,  1903,  that  they  succeeded  in  reaching  Oberlin, 
and  those  sixteen  months  were  filled  with  indignities 
from  which  all  the  efforts  of  influential  friends,  and 
of  the  Chinese  Minister  to  the  United  States,  were 
unable  to  protect  them." 

No  American  returning  from  abroad,  whether 
he  lands  at  New  York  or  at  San  Francisco,  feels 
called  upon  to  feel  proud  of  our  tariff  laws,  or  of 
the  treatment  of  travellers  by  our  customs  officers, 
a  treatment  which  appears  to  stand  in  a  class  by 
itself  and  not  to  be  paralleled  in  any  other  coun- 
try. Within  the  past  two  years  a  case  of  exceptional 
insult  to  a  Chinese  family  landing  at  Boston  at- 
tracted wide  notice,  and  the  intervention  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  who,  in  a  message 
to  Congress,  stated  the  grievances  of  the  Chinese 
more  strongly  than  they  have  generally  been  able 
to  do  it  for  themselves. 

It  must  be  evident  that  there  is  something  radi- 
cally wrong  when  events  of  this  kind  constantly 
recur  with  the  persistence  of  a  repeating  decimal, 
and  are  only  prevented  by  the  inflexible  rigour  of  a 
Chief  Magistrate  who  insists  upon  a  "  square  deal." 

There  could  scarcely  be  a  more  typical  exempli- 


170     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

fication  of  this  spirit  of  undisguised  contempt  for 
the  amenities  of  international  intercourse  than  the 
experience  of  the  Chinese  exhibitors  at  the  Lou- 
isiana Purchase  Exposition  at  St.  Louis  in  1904. 
"  Our  Government  formally  invited  China  to  par- 
ticipate, sending  a  special  commission  to  Peking 
to  urge  acceptance.  China  accepted  in  good  faith, 
and  then  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington 
drew  up  a  series  of  regulations  requiring  "  that  each 
exhibitor,  upon  arrival  at  any  seaport  of  this  coun- 
try, should  be  photographed  three  times  for  pur- 
poses of  identification,  and  should  file  a  bond  in  the 
penal  sum  of  $5,000,  the  conditions  of  which  were 
that  he  would  proceed  directly  and  by  the  shortest 
route  to  St.  Louis,  would  not  leave  the  Exposition 
grounds  at  any  time  after  his  arrival  there,  and 
would  depart  for  China  by  the  first  steamer  sailing 
after  the  close  of  the  Exposition."  Thus  a  sort 
of  Chinese  rogues'  gallery  was  to  be  established  at 
each  port,  and  the  Fair  grounds  were  to  be  made 
a  prison  pen  for  those  who  had  come  here  as  in- 
vited guests  of  the  nation,  whose  presence  and  aid 
were  needed  to  make  the  display  a  success.  It  is 
only  just  to  add  that,  upon  a  most  vigorous  pro- 
test made  against  these  courteous  regulations  by 
the  Chinese  Government,  and  a  threat  to  cancel 
their  acceptance  of  our  invitation,  the  rules  were 
withdrawn  and  others  more  decent  were  substituted. 
But  the  fact  that  they  were  prepared  and  seriously 
presented  to  China  shows  to  what  an  extent  of  in  jus- 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     171 

tice  and  discourtesy  our  mistaken  attitude  and  action 
in  regard  to  Chinese  immigration  has  carried  us."  * 
For  many  years  the  legal,  extra-legal,  and  often 
lawless  proceedings  against  the  Chinese  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast  and  elsewhere  in  America  seemed  to 
excite  no  general  interest  in  China,  except  in  a  few 
counties  in  Kuang-tung,  whence  the  greater  part  of 
the  immigrants  came.  But  since  the  Boxer  upris- 
ing China  has  become  as  never  before  unified.  In 
the  summer  of  1905  (simultaneously  with  Japan's 
naval  victories)  the  usual  mutual  repulsion  of  na- 
tives of  different  Provinces  to  each  other  appeared  to 
be  subordinated  to  a  great  wave  of  national  feeling, 
first  manifested  in  the  coast  cities  and  rapidly  spread- 
ing to  the  interior.  Then  began  the  boycott  of  Amer- 
ican products,  which  not  only  affected  the  sale  of 
kerosene,  flour,  and  piece-goods,  but  in  some  in- 
stances broke  up  American  mission  schools,  made 
travelling  unsafe  in  some  parts  of  China,  and  called 
forth  bitter  editorials  in  Chinese  journals,  as  well 
as  cartoons,  showing  the  animosity  towards  those 
who  continued  to  use  American  goods.  That  much 
of  this  sentiment  and  its  display  was  manufac- 
tured, does  not  alter  the  fact  that  it  produced  its 
effects,  injuring  both  sides,  but  especially  the  Chi- 
nese themselves.  In  a  case  reported  from  the  south 
of  China,  a  youth  returned  from  school  where  he 
had  imbibed  the  current  views,  acting  in  accord- 
ance with  the  teachings  of  the  Filial  Piety  Classic, 
asked  his  father  and  mother  for  permission  to  de- 
•"New  Forces  in  Old  China,"  pp.  160-161. 


172     CHINA    AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

stray  a  gramophone  of  American  make,  which  had 
been  given  to  him,  on  the  ground  that  the  Amer- 
icans are  bad  people  who  oppress  the  Chinese.  As 
the  machine  was  his  own,  his  parents  gave  him 
leave  to  do  as  he  pleased.  He  then  coiled  his 
queue  on  his  head,  rolled  up  his  sleeves,  and  taking 
a  hatchet  into  the  yard  soon  reduced  the  gramo- 
phone to  a  mass  of  wreckage.  The  other  members 
of  his  family  were  by  this  time  also  infected  with 
the  bacillus  anti-Americanus,  and  went  through  the 
house  gathering  up  all  articles  of  American  origin; 
taking  them  into  the  yard  they  made  a  bon- 
fire of  them,  feeling  that  thus  they  had  been  freed 
from  an  accursed  spell.  It  was  in  this  spirit  that 
the  boycott,  cleverly  manipulated  by  designing  men, 
was  carried  through.  The  coffin  of  one  of  its  early 
promoters,  who  committed  suicide  in  Shanghai,  was 
taken  to  his  native  place  in  Canton,  where  it  was 
received,  especially  by  students,  with  the  greatest 
honour.  The  following  year  the  anniversary  of  his 
death  was  celebrated  with  great  ceremony,  and  were 
the  course  of  events  in  succeeding  centuries  to  be 
like  that  of  the  past,  within  a  few  hundred  years 
this  youth  by  natural  evolution  might  become  the 
god  of  Patriotism.  Throughout  this  movement, 
which  but  for  its  interruption  by  officials  might 
have  become  a  national  one,  it  was  instructive  to 
observe  that  its  nidus  was  largely  among  students, 
many  of  them  half-educated,  and  more  than  half- 
intoxicated  with  new  ideas  of  "  the  rights  of  man," 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     173 

and  of  the  essential  unity  of  the  Chinese  people. 
The  anti-American  boycott  was  a  storm-signal  in 
a  region  where  there  are  not  unlikely  to  be  many 
subsequent  typhoons/  That  it  passed  without 
doing  far  greater  damage  is  no  proof  that  this  will 
happen  next  time ;  while  the  fact  that  such  a  sudden 
movement  on  such  a  relatively  small  scale  caused 
such  a  profound  sensation  in  America,  is  not  likely 
to  be  lost  upon  the  shrewd  Chinese.  For  the  first 
time  there  appeared  to  be  a  general  recognition  on 
the  part  of  the  American  people  that  as  a  people 
we  have  greatly  wronged  the  Chinese,  and  it  was  to 
the  thoughtful  traveller  a  significant  circumstance 
that  unprejudiced  and  intelligent  Americans,  when 
the  provocation  for  the  Chinese  action  was  ex- 

'  As  these  lines  are  committed  to  paper,  a  Peking  letter  in  a 
Chinese  journal  (with  an  English  page)  comes  under  obser- 
vation, in  which  the  writer  (one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Imperial  Commission  which  went  abroad  to  investigate  Con- 
stitutional government)  says  in  reference  to  the  proposed  re- 
newal of  the  boycott,  and  Minister  Rockhill's  request  to  have 
it  stopped :  "  I  think  our  merchants,  students,  and  others 
have  every  right  to  boycott  American  goods  in  China.  If  the 
American  working  classes  can  do  as  they  like  toward  Chi- 
nese, simply  because  the  latter  can  live  on  cheaper  food  and 
work  more  hours  at  less  wages,  why  can  we  not  retaliate  by 
boycotting  American  goods?  America  dare  not  treat  Japan 
in  the  same  way  as  China,  because  our  neighbour  has  a  large 
and  a  strong  army  and  navy,  and  can  compel  respect  if  neces- 
sary by  the  force  of  her  arms.  I  hope  the  Governor-General 
of  the  two  Kuang  provinces  will  not  dissolve  the  boycott  asso- 
ciation, as  demanded  by  Mr.  Rockhill,  until  he  has  received 
some  assurance  that  the  Washington  Government  will  act 
fairly  toward  China  by  amending  the  present  exclusion  laws." 


174     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

plained  them,  almost  invariably  exclaimed:  "I  am 
glad  of  it!  I  would  have  done  the  same  thing  in 
their  place ! " 

3.  Every  true  American  ought  to  wish  well  to 
those  organisations  which  have  for  their  object  the 
steady  and  permanent  improvement  of  the  condition 
of  all  grades  of  workers.  Despite  a  foreign  immi- 
gration of  a  million  a  year,  mainly  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  that  part  of  the  United  States  west  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  is  yet  suffering  from  the  scar- 
city and  the  cost  of  labour.  Superabundant  testi- 
mony from  every  Pacific  State  shows  that  a  mod- 
erate immigration  of  Chinese  labourers  would  vastly 
increase  the  wealth  of  these  States,  and  would  aid 
in  developing  resources  now  running  to  waste,  and 
likely  to  do  so  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

In  some  industries,  such  as  salmon-canning  and 
fruit-raising,  and  especially  wherever  irrigation  is 
required,  the  Chinese  are  found  to  be  indispensable. 
All  the  northern  portion  of  the  United  States  deeply 
feels  the  lack  of  domestic  service.  Papers,  pam- 
phlets, books,  have  been  and  are  constantly  appear- 
ing upon  this  fertile  theme,  yet  nothing  is  done,  or 
apparently  can  be  done,  to  mend  matters.  If  it 
were  possible  (as  it  is  not)  to  introduce  into  the 
country  a  few  hundred  thousand  Chinese  servants, 
half  to  serve  as  cooks  and  the  remainder  as  table- 
boys  and  general  house-servants  (in  each  of  which 
capacities  the  Chinese  have  no  superiors  in  any 
land),  it  would  probably  prove  the  greatest  social 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     175 

blessing  which  could  be  conferred  on  the  women  of 
America.  Within  five  years  it  would  make  life 
an  entirely  different  matter,  and  it  would  almost 
certainly  raise  the  birth  rate.  American  girls,  as 
a  rule,  positively  refuse  to  go  out  to  domestic  serv- 
ice. Foreign  "  help  "  is  scarce,  unsatisfactory,  ex- 
pensive, and  transient. 

Now  why  cannot  American  women  be  relieved  of 
some  of  their  heavy  burdens  by  inviting  the  Chi- 
nese to  fill  a  now  vacant  place  ?  Because  the  Amer- 
ican labour  unions  would  not  permit  it.  If  we  under- 
stand by  Civilisation  "  that  state  of  society  in  which 
the  will,  the  interests,  and  the  passions  of  the  indi- 
vidual (or  of  a  class)  are  restrained  by  irresistible 
law  for  the  protection  of  the  whole  community,  or 
it  may  be  for  its  advancement  toward  an  end 
deemed  by  that  community  in  its  wisest  moments 
permanently  desirable,"  it  is  evident  that  the  intel- 
ligent tyranny  of  highly  organised  capital  and  the 
relatively  unintelligent  tyranny  of  highly  organised 
labour,  each  planning  for  its  own  interest,  and  dis- 
regarding that  of  the  commonwealth,  are  equally 
opposed  not  only  to  true  democracy  (or  republi- 
canism), but  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  civil- 
isation. 

Under  present  conditions,  however,  any  further 
Chinese  labour  immigration  is  not  merely  impracti- 
cable but  undesirable,  since  it  must  inevitably  add 
to  the  long  catalogue  of  our  crimes  against  China. 

4.  The  sketch  already  given  of  our  treaties  with 


176     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

China  shows  what  obligations  we  have  willingly 
assumed.  The  imperfect  summary  of  the  outrages 
against  Chinese  in  America  may  indicate  how 
lightly  we  have  often  disregarded  those  obligations. 
To  the  remonstrances  of  China  we  have  been  obliged 
to  explain  that  the  crimes  were  committed  in  "  a 
Territory,"  the  designation  of  a  region  over  which 
the  control  of  the  central  government  is  very  im- 
perfect ;  or  perhaps  in  "  a  State,"  a  division  of  the 
country  over  which  in  matters  of  this  sort  the  cen- 
tral government  has  no  control  at  all.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  when  a  certain  Secretary  of  State  re- 
ferred a  dissatisfied  Chinese  Minister  to  "  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Colorado,"  that  Minister  should  blandly 
reply  that  China  had  no  treaties  with  "the  Gov- 
ernor of  Colorado "  ?  And  is  it  surprising  that 
such  shuffling  of  responsibility  as  we  invariably  re- 
fuse to  tolerate  from  the  Chinese  Government  should 
appear  to  the  Chinese  as  utterly  unworthy  of  a 
"free  and  enlightened  republic"?  May  it  not  be 
a  fortunate  circumstance  that  the  question  of  the 
relation  of  the  individual  States  to  the  General  Gov- 
ernment in  matters  covered  by  treaties  is  thrust  upon 
us  in  a  way  which  ought  to  compel  a  definite  set- 
tlement? There  is  probably  little  danger  that 
Americans  will  ever  tamely  surrender  any  rights 
upon  which  they  ought  to  insist;  but  is  there  not 
grave  danger  that  some  special  guild  or  some  State 
may  deliberately  set  its  own  volition,  preferences, 
or  prejudices  against  the  welfare  of  the  nation  as 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     177 

a  whole?  As  long  as  this  is  seriously  threatened, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  we  are  safe  either  from  the 
risk  of  domestic  strife,  or  from  that  of  foreign  war. 
The  "  body  politic,"  like  any  other  body,  must  have 
a  head,  and  must  be  a  unit,  otherwise  it  is  unsound, 
which  is  but  another  name  for  insane.  It  is  prob- 
ably the  commercial  thumb-screw  which  will  prove 
the  greatest  stimulant  to  that  American  good  sense 
which  in  the  end  is  sure  to  prevail.  Mr.  Oscar 
Straus,  Secretary  of  Commerce  and  Labour,  discuss- 
ing proposals  for  reciprocal  tariffs,  is  reported  to 
have  said :  "  The  situation  is  serious.  The  San 
Francisco  affair  may  greatly  affect  American  trade 
with  Japan,  and  there  is  also  ground  for  fear  that 
it  may  injuriously  influence  the  general  friendship 
between  the  two  Powers,  a  friendship  which  is 
essential  to  the  development  of  commerce.  Amer- 
ica is  not  now  in  a  position  to  criticise  any  nation  or 
individual  who  endeavours  to  obtain  favours  from 
another  while  at  the  same  time  inflicting  injuries  on 
the  latter."  Nothing  is  more  probable  than  that  all 
differences  both  with  Japan  and  China  might  have 
been  avoided  by  judicious  and  temperate  consulta- 
tion with  these  Powers  as  equals,  as  everyone  now 
recognises  Japan  to  be.  It  is  perhaps  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  a  large  part  of  the  American  peo- 
ple is  as  much  in  need  of  education  in  this  matter  as 
are  the  people  of  China.  The  President  of  the 
United  States  in  his  annual  message,  December, 
1906,  embodied  the  view  of  a  patriot  in  these  words : 


178     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

"  Good  manners  should  be  an  international,  not  less 
than  an  individual,  attribute.  It  is  unthinkable  that 
we  continue  a  policy  under  which  a  given  locality 
may  be  allowed  to  commit  a  crime  against  a  friendly 
nation,  and  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
be  limited,  not  to  preventing  the  commission  of  the 
crime,  but  in  the  last  resort  to  defending  the  people 
who  have  committed  it  against  the  consequences  of 
their  own  wrong-doing."  The  'root  trouble  with  our 
relations  with  China,  and  more  recently  with  Japan, 
is  the  contemptuous  disregard  of  their  point  of  view 
and  the  childish  insistence  upon  our  own.  He  who 
supposes  that  in  the  face  of  the  rising  spirit  of  the 
Orient  we  can  permanently  have  one  set  of  immi- 
gration laws  for  the  Chinese,  and  another  for  the 
Japanese,  is  under  an  illusion  which  will  sooner  or 
later  be  dispelled. 

Another  item  in  the  list  of  American  disadvan- 
tages in  China  is  the  history  of  the  concession  given 
to  an  American  syndicate  for  building  a  railway 
from  Hankow  (Wu-ch'ang)  to  Canton.  The 
northern  section  of  this  great  trunk  line  (Peking 
to  Hankow)  had  been  entrusted  to  a  Belgian  syn- 
dicate, because  Belgium  is  a  small  Power  from 
which  nothing  is  to  be  feared.  But  the  Belgian 
syndicate  was  financed  in  France,  and  the  Russo- 
Chinese  Bank  (virtually  a  Russian  State  Bank)  was 
the  banker.  Thus  the  Chinese  believed  themselves 
to  be  delivered  over  to  a  Russo-French  combination 
which  controlled  this  initial  line  through  the  heart 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     179 

of  China.  America,  traditional  "  friend  of  China," 
having  no  territorial  ambitions,  was  then  granted 
the  concession  for  the  southern  half  of  this  route 
upon  the  express  stipulation  that  the  right  should 
not  be  transferred  to  any  other  nationality. 

But  the  Belgians  were  eager  to  get  control  of 
the  American  stock,  and  were  actually  allowed  to 
do  so.  When  the  Chinese  discovered  this  fact  they 
rightly  threatened  to  cancel  the  concession.  By  what 
financial  juggling  the  stock,  while  actually  bought  in 
Belgium,  was  made  to  appear  to  be  still  American, 
is  of  no  importance  here.  The  vital  fact  was  the 
evident  breach  of  faith,  which,  when  it  was  dis- 
covered, made  the  people  of  the  Provinces  through 
which  the  line  was  to  run  furious.  Great  mass  meet- 
ings (a  new  phenomenon  in  China)  were  held,  at 
which,  in  fluent  speech,  but  in  conflicting  dialects, 
mutually  almost  unintelligible,  the  perfidy  of  the 
Americans  was  denounced.  It  soon  became  impossi- 
ble either  for  Americans  or  for  Belgians  to  build  the 
road.  The  Chinese  wished  to  have  an  appraisement 
of  the  value  and  to  pay  for  what  they  got,  but  they 
charge  the  American  syndicate  with  refusing  to  sell 
at  less  than  a  50  per  cent,  profit,  so  that  for  what  was 
at  most  worth  $2,000,000  they  paid  $3,750,000 
(gold),  borrowing  the  money  to  do  so  from  the 
Hongkong  Government,  doubtless  thanking  the 
gods  of  the  land  and  of  the  grain  that  they  were  rid 
of  such  "  friends  to  China."  But  this  was  not  all. 
Chinese,  whose  official  position  entitled  them  to  ex- 


i8o     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

amine  the  books  of  the  syndicate,  testify  that  they 
were  not  allowed  to  do  so;  that  when  they  did  get 
access  to  them  it  was  discovered  that  large  sums 
had  been  constantly  drawn — amounting  at  times  to 
several  thousand  dollars — ^by  the  manager,  for  which 
no  vouchers  were  forthcoming,  and  no  other  ex- 
planation than  the  compendious  phrase  "  personal 
expenses."  Mr.  K.  G.  Kuang,  a  Taotai,  who  is  an 
engineer  on  the  repurchased  ("  Yueh-Han")  lines, 
is  reported  in  a  recent  Hongkong  paper  as  saying: 
"  That  Chinese  officials  do  squeeze,  I  am  not  going 
to  deny,  and  I  have  seen  some  fairly  good  examples 
of  it.  The  best  samples  of  it,  however,  that  I  have 
ever  seen  or  heard  of  are  insignificant  compared 
with  things  I  could  tell  you  about  your  boasted  for- 
eigners [Americans]  and  our  railway.  Mind,  I 
have  the  books.  Things  doubled  in  price  in  a 
most  mysterious  way.  We  paid  high  prices,  and 
got  nothing  worth  having  for  our  money." 

To  the  high  financiers  managing  this  enterprise, 
seeing  nothing  beyond  the  four  corners  of  their 
ledgers,  it  doubtless  seemed  (and  perhaps  still 
seems)  a  remarkably  clever  performance.  Had  the 
railway  been  well  and  honestly  built,  its  operation 
by  Americans  would  have  opened  a  viaduct  into 
which  American  machinery  and  American  goods 
would  have  flowed  in  an  ever-enlarging  measure; 
and,  better  still,  America  would  have  been  able  to 
influence  China  for  good  in  important  ways  and  at 
a  time  when  she  most  needed  such  help.     Instead  of 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     i8i 

this,  we  have  the  boycott,  and  a  mixture  of  hatred 
and  contempt  for  America  and  Americans  which  for 
a  long  period  rendered  the  Hves  of  citizens  of  our 
country  in  China  distinctly  a  burden.  It  is  not, 
perhaps,  too  much  to  say  that  from  a  moral,  and 
even  from  a  commercial,  point  of  view,  this  whole 
proceeding  was  the  severest  blow  ever  struck  by 
Americans  themselves  at  American  interests  in  the 
Far  East. 

Another  capital  American  disadvantage  abroad 
has  been  the  baleful  shadow  thrown  by  the  Spoils 
system  at  home  over  appointments  of  foreign  min- 
isters and  consuls.  There  was  formerly  a  baseless 
superstition  that  the  nomination  of  Minister  to 
China  "  belonged  "  to  the  Pacific  coast,  for  no  other 
apparent  reason  than  that  this  portion  of  the  coun- 
try had  more  experience  of  the  Chinese  and  more 
antipathy  to  them  than  any  other.  That  we  have 
had,  on  the  whole,  an  excellent  line  of  ministers  is  no 
thanks  to  the  system — or  the  lack  of  it.  It  is  only 
recently  that  a  small  staff  of  student-interpreters 
has  been  attached  to  the  Legation  in  Peking,  from 
among  whom  interpreters  could  be  appointed  to  the 
consulates,  where  the  scandals  connected  with  the 
employment  of  English-speaking  Chinese  in  that 
capacity— or  rather,  incapacity — have  been  notori- 
ous. Now  that  reform  of  the  consular  service  has 
begun,  we  may  look  for  its  extension.  That  serv- 
ice has  furnished  many  admirable  men,  and  when 
an  American  consul  is  at  his  best  he  is  not  sur- 


i82     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

passed  by  those  of  any  other  country — and  also, 
alas!  many  unworthy  ones.  A  recent  British  critic 
remarks:  "From  one  end  of  the  country  to  the 
other,  American  consuls  in  the  past  have  been  the 
butt  of  every  jest  on  the  subject  of  the  white  man's 
so-called  superiority  over  the  Chinaman,  in  the 
matter  of  *  squeeze.'  Having,  except  in  certain 
honourable  cases,  but  four,  or  at  the  most  eight, 
years  of  office  before  them,  after  which  they  will  be 
thrown  on  the  world  without  pensions,  it  has  be- 
come an  understood  thing  among  American  consuls 
that  any  *  plunder '  that  is  to  be  made,  should  be 
prorriptly  pocketed.  It  would  be  unkind  to  make 
longer  reference  to  this  subject  at  a  time  [1905] 
when  the  conduct  of  at  least  three  American  con- 
sulates in  China  is  engaging  the  serious  attention 
of  the  Washington  State  Department.  But  when 
it  has  been  proved  beyond  doubt,  as  it  will  be,  that 
American  officials  in  China  connive  at  acts  which 
bring  their  country  into  increasing  contempt  in  the 
Far  East,  it  is  high  time  that  the  matter  should  be 
properly  attended  to.  There  is  only  one  solution — 
it  is  the  creation  of  an  American  consular  service 
on  the  English  model.  Young  men  of  the  Yale 
and  Harvard  stamp,  after  being  properly  grounded 
in  Chinese  for  two  or  three  years  at  Peking,  would 
soon  make  the  present  state  of  affairs  only  a  distant 
memory."  ^ 

* "  The  Re-shaping  of  the  Far  East,"  by  B.  L.  Putnam- 
Weale,  vol.  il,  pp.  330-331. 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     183 

It  is  a  fact  of  great  importance  that  Orientals  are 
most  deeply  impressed  by  what  is  visible.  British 
consulates  in  Eastern  ports  are  always  large  and 
well-placed,  and  belong  to  the  Government.  The 
Shanghai  consulate  is  situated  in  spacious  grounds 
on  the  most  eligible  site  in  the  International  Set- 
tlement. The  Germans,  the  French,  and  the  Japan- 
ese, in  like  manner,  always  have  suitable  and  con> 
modious  establishments.  Alone  among  the  great 
powers,  the  United  States  owns  no  buildings,  and 
has  nowhere  any  local  habitation,  drifting  now  here 
now  there,  at  the  caprice  of  a  landlord  (though  the 
Consul's  locality  can,  however,  almost  always  be 
discovered  by  diligent  study  of  the  local  directory 
and  a  map). 

American  lack  of  a  merchant  marine  is  a  serious 
handicap  in  the  Far  East.  Half  a  century  and  more 
ago  American  clipper  ships  outsailed  all  others,  and 
reaped  the  profit  of  the  difference  of  two  cents  a 
pound  on  the  first  tea  cargoes,  clearing,  perhaps, 
$40,ocxD  in  a  single  trip.  In  1848,  the  arrivals  of 
American  ships  in  Chinese  waters  were  6y  at  Can- 
ton, 20  in  Shanghai,  and  8  in  Amoy,  standing  first 
after  the  British.  Thirty-five  years  ago  the 
"  flowery  flag  "  was  everywhere  in  evidence  on  the 
China  coast,  and  up  the  Yang-tzu.  Now  it  is 
seldom  seen.  With  the  war  between  the  States  our 
merchant  marine  dwindled;  yet,  although  that  war 
terminated  more  than  forty  years  ago,  we  are  still 
subjected  not  only  to  the  strange  humiliation  of  see- 


1 84     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

ing  America's  carrying-trade  and  its  profits  in  the 
hands  of  other  nations,  but  of  witnessing  the  sudden 
rise  and  skilful  development  of  German  and  Japan- 
ese world  commerce  within  the  limits  of  a  single 
generation,  while  we  content  ourselves  with  build- 
ing ocean  yachts  of  uncanny  proportions,  which 
(manned  perhaps  by  a  European  crew)  can  gener- 
ally outrace  all  others.  Little  Japan,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  subsidised  a  great  number  of  steam  lines, 
and  now  has  regular  and  efficient  service  to  Vladi- 
vostock,  Korea,  all  the  seaports  in  China  and  the 
ports  of  the  Yang-tzu  river,  Hongkong,  the  Straits 
Settlements,  Bombay,  London,  Australia,  Victoria, 
B.  C,  Seattle,  San  Francisco,  and  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  and  is  now  opening  new  routes  to  South 
America.  Thus  the  busy  hands  and  tireless  brains 
of  the  Japanese  are  steadily  developing  their  plan  of 
weaving  about  the  globe  a  network  of  commercial 
lines  which  are  already  making  Japan  a  formidable 
trade-rival  of  the  greatest  Occidental  countries. 
The  apparently  impending  nationalisation  of  nearly 
(or  possibly  quite)  all  the  principal  Japanese  indus- 
tries will,  for  aught  that  can  be  foreseen,  render 
them  in  their  own  field  irresistible.  There  is,  in  like 
manner,  a  process  in  active  operation  which,  with 
pardonable  exaggeration,  has  been  styled  the  "  Ger- 
manisation  of  the  world,"  to  which  in  America  little 
or  no  attention  seems  to  have  been  paid.  (For 
some  notice  of  the  outline  facts,  the  reader  may  be 
referred  to  Chapter  X.  of  Von  Schierbrand's  "  Ger- 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     185 

many,    the    Welding   of   a    World-Power,"    New 
York,  1904.) 

Contrast  with  this  range  of  facts  the  case  of  the 
United  States  as  described  ( "  New  York  Independ- 
ent/' June  21,  1906)  by  Senator  William  P.  Frye, 
who  as  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Com- 
merce has  devoted  more  time  and  study  to  the  ques- 
tion of  ship-subsidy  than  any  other  American.  This 
is  his  account  of  the  American  merchant  marine  in 
1905 :  "  Last  year,  for  example,  not  an  American 
vessel  entered  or  cleared,  in  the  foreign  trade,  in 
Austria-Hungary,  Denmark,  Italy,  Netherlands, 
Russia,  Spain,  Norway,  Sweden,  Portugal,  Greece, 
Scotland,  or  Ireland;  only  one  in  France,  two  in 
Germany,  fifty-seven  in  England — forty-seven  being 
credited  to  the  American  line,  which  was  started  a 
few  years  ago  under  the  unfortunately  amended 
effort  which  Congress  made  toward  ship-subsidy. 
The  other  ten  steamers  were  also  built  in  expecta- 
tion of  the  shipping  bill  of  1901.  For  the  entire 
continent  of  Europe  there  were  eighty-eight  Amer- 
ican entries  out  of  a  total  of  4,154;  ninety  American 
clearances  out  of  a  total  of  4,490 — forty-seven  being 
those  of  the  one  American  line.  A  few  years  ago 
our  consul  at  Bergen,  the  principal  port  of  Norway, 
imposed  certain  fees  and  taxes  upon  a  little  vessel, 
the  *  Hamilton  Fish,'  which,  accidentally,  I  think, 
entered  the  port.  His  attention  was  afterward 
called  to  the  fact  that  these  fines  had  been  repealed 
by  Congress  several  years  before.     In  his  letter  re- 


l86     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY. 

funding  the  charges,  the  Consul  wrote :  *  The  fact 
that  I  have  been  Consul  here  for  fifteen  years,  and 
that  this  is  the  only  American  vessel  I  have  seen,  may 
be  some  excuse  for  my  ignorance  of  the  law.'  It 
eeems  to  me  that  this  picture  ought  to  humiliate  and 
mortify  every  patriotic  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
who  glories  in  the  power  and  the  prosperity  of  his 
country.  But  it  is  more  than  humiliating.  It  is 
absolutely  dangerous  to  be  so  utterly  dependent  on 
the  other  nations  of  the  world." 

Is  It  strange  that  whenever  one  meets  with  an 
article  in  a  British  or  a  Continental  journal  on  the 
world's  shipping,  it  is  always  assumed  that  in  this 
connection  the  United  States  of  America  is  a  quan- 
tity wholly  negligible?  It  is  but  yesterday  that 
any  serious  attempts  on  our  part  have  been  made  to 
win  the  good-will  of  the  South  American  republics, 
which,  had  we  been  wise,  we  should  have  employed 
every  means  to  achieve  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago,  since  that  good-will,  when  won,  will  in  its 
effects  prove  of  the  highest  value  both  to  us  and  to 
them.  As  an  additional  example  of  American  de- 
sire to  do  justice  to  China,  it  deserves  mention  that, 
in  the  very  first  of  our  treaties,  citizens  of  the  United 
States  were  expressly  forbidden  to  deal  in  opium 
or  in  any  contraband  article  of  merchandise,  and 
the  Grovemment  promised  to  take  measures  to  pre- 
vent its  flag  from  being  abused  by  the  subjects 
of  other  nations,  as  a  cover  for  the  violation  of 
the  laws  of  the  Empire.     This  agreement  was  sub- 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     187 

sequently  renewed  (to  the  extreme  disgust  of  the 
British  Minister)  in  the  treaty  of  1880.  In  the 
early  days  of  the  last  century,  American  naval  com- 
manders, while  notifying  shipmasters  that  if  caught 
smuggling  opium  they  must  expect  no  protection 
from  the  fleet,  yet  took  no  steps  to  prevent  such 
violation  of  the  laws.  American  effort  to  do  simple 
justice  to  an  Oriental  people  excited  on  the  part  of 
those  profiting  by  the  opium  trade  both  opposition 
and  ridicule,  as  a  showy  and  an  entirely  inexpensive 
display  of  virtue. 

In  a  recent  work  already  quoted  ("  The  Re-shap- 
ing of  the  Far  East  ")  the  author  calls  the  American 
prohibition  of  trading  in  opium  a  "curious  pro- 
vision." In  explanation  of  this  remark,  he  admits 
that  "  no  right-minded  man  can  take  exception  to 
the  general  justice  of  this  pronouncement,  but  with- 
out a  full  knowledge  of  the  extremely  complex 
opium  question  ...  it  is  impossible  to  understand 
the  exact  value  of  a  clause.  The  motives  which 
inspired  it  gave  rise  to  the  peculiar  and  distinct  policy 
America  has  constantly  followed  in  China  for  a 
period  of  fifty  years,  to  the  serious  detriment  of  the 
real  good  of  the  coimtry.  For  the  United  States 
.  .  .  have,  as  it  were,  approached  China  in  this  way 
and  with  these  words :  *  Circumstances  and  a  for- 
tunate geographical  position  have  given  birth  to  a 
friendly  trade  between  our  two  peoples,  who  must, 
in  spite  of  everything,  preserve  a  distinct  attitude 
towards  one  another.    Points  of  disagreement  may 


i88     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

arise  between  us,  but  we  wish  to  insist  on  the  fact 
that  we  approach  the  whole  Chinese  question  from 
the  only  kind  and  noble  point  of  view,  and  that  any 
privileges  granted  us  by  no  means  entail  any  relin- 
quishment of  the  Emperor's  right  of  eminent  domain 
or  dominion  over  his  lands  and  his  waters.*  And 
if  one  continued  the  speech,  he  might  add  sotto  voce, 
*  And,  in  spite  of  everything,  we  will  maintain  this 
attitude  of  friendly  solicitude,  and  will  not  attempt 
to  understand  finesses,  intrigues,  or  the  actual  con- 
ditions of  an  Eastern  country,  but  shall  continue  to 
proclaim  that  China  is  a  sovereign  international 
State.' "  But  Providence  had  in  store  swift  retri- 
bution for  this  shameful  recognition  of  China's 
"  international  rights."  "  Had  American  shipping 
continued  to  expand  after  the  *  forties '  and  the  con- 
clusion of  the  first  treaty  in  the  way  which  had  been 
so  noticeable  in  the  first  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  there  is  no  saying  what  the  maintenance 
of  an  attitude  adapted  only  for  intercourse  between 
Western  peoples,  or  those  which  have  been  thor- 
oughly Europeanised,  would  have  brought  about. 
But  the  sudden  decline  and  subsequent  almost 
complete  disappearance  of  the  American  flag  from 
Chinese  waters,  made  the  position  of  the  United 
States  in  China  for  many  years  one  of  meagre 
importance."  It  is  upon  this  lofty  level  of  morality 
that  negotiations  with  China  (and  with  other 
Oriental  countries  as  well)  have  often  been  con- 
ducted.    The  same  view,  even  less  obliquely  ex- 


ADVANTAGES   AND   DISADVANTAGES     189 

pressed,  was  embodied  forty  years  ago  in  the 
remark  of  a  French  char ge-d' affaires  in  regard  to 
the  translation  by  Dr.  Martin  of  Wheaton's  "  Inter- 
national Law  "  into  the  Chinese  language,  who  said 
to  Mr.  Burlingame :  "  Who  is  this  man  who  is  go- 
ing to  give  the  Chinese  an  insight  into  our  European 
international  law?  Kill  him — choke  him  off;  he'll 
make  us  endless  trouble."  ^ 

American  attitude  in  regard  to  the  terrible  traffic 
in  Chinese  coolies  was  similar  to  that  toward  opium, 
but  in  this,  happily,  she  did  not  stand  alone.  The 
evident  intention  in  the  circular  notes  of  the  late 
Secretary  Hay,  to  secure  justice  to  China,  did  not  a 
little  to  convince  the  more  intelligent  Chinese  of  the 
essential  good-will  of  the  United  States.  It  is  true 
that  the  actual  importance  of  the  international  agree- 
ments relating  to  the  "  open  door  "  were  misunder- 
stood, and  greatly  overrated  in  America,  where  the 
wide  chasm  between  promise  and  execution,  in  mat- 
ters relating  to  the  Far  East,  has  not  obtruded  itself 
upon  public  attention.  Secretary  Hay  took,  indeed, 
a  wise  and  commendable  stand;  but  little  or  noth- 
ing came  of  it,  because  we  were  not  at  all  prepared 
to  back  up  our  opinions  with  force,  and  without 
force,  the  Far  Eastern  question  would  never  have 
reached  its  present  stage.  It  was  well  to  insist  upon 
the  opening  of  certain  "  ports  "  in  Manchuria,  and 
the  Unitation  of  the  area  of  the  war  was  a  great  in- 

»  "  A  Cycle  of  Cathay,"  by  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
p.  234. 


190     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

ternational  benefit.  But  it  was  not. diplomatic  notes, 
but  Japanese  armies,  which  settled  the  matter. 

An  American  asset  of  value  in  China  has  been  the 
high  character  of  the  heads  of  some  of  the  great 
mercantile  firms  which  flourished  two  and  three  gen- 
erations ago,  but  these  large  houses  have  all  disap- 
peared and  have  left  few  successors.  It  is  not  so 
much  by  specifications  in  treaties,  as  by  the  quality 
of  its  men,  that  the  keen-sighted  Oriental  judges  a 
people.  It  is  a  great  advantage  that  we  have  now 
an  American  Asiatic  Association,  with  a  secretary 
whose  vigilance  nothing  escapes,  and  with  a  monthly 
journal  which  serves  to  concentrate  light,  and  to 
deepen  the  interest  of  intelligent  Americans  in  the 
Far  East. 

Complementary  to  this  organisation  are  the 
American  Associations  of  China  and  Japan,  each  of 
which  acts  as  an  eye,  an  ear,  and  a  voice.  No 
American  in  America,  who  cares  to  be  informed  as 
to  American  relations  with  the  Far  East,  has  any 
further  excuse  for  ignorance;  and  no  American  in 
the  Far  East,  however  remote  from  treaty  ports  may 
be  his  residence,  need  be  unenlightened  about  cur- 
rent questions,  or  unrepresented  in  an  expression  of 
American  public  opinion.  The  fact  that  the  present 
President  of  the  United  States  is  a  man  of  alert 
mind,  broad  knowledge,  instantaneous  comprehen- 
sion, inflexible  integrity,  resolutely  bent  on  civic,  na- 
tional, and  international  righteousness,  and  that  the 
administration  of  the  State  Department  has   for 


ADVANTAGES   AND    DISADVANTAGES     191 

many  years  been  guided  by  the  same  principles,  is 
among  the  most  hopeful  signs  of  an  improved  and 
elevated  national  life. 

An  evidence  of  the  growing  appreciation  at  Wash- 
ington of  the  increasing  importance  of  our  foreign 
relations  was  the  passage  (June,  1906)  by  Con- 
gress, of  a  bill  for  the  establishment  of  a  long-needed 
United  States  Court  for  China.  This  is  "  not  an 
isolated  act  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  but,  like 
the  recent  legislation  for  the  reorganisation  of  the 
Consular  Service,  is  one  of  a  series  of  acts  looking 
toward  the  improvement  of  our  relations  with  China 
and  other  nations." 

Within  a  very  brief  period  after  the  opening  of 
the  Court  by  Judge  L.  R.  Wilfley,  formerly  Attor- 
ney-General of  the  Philippine  Islands  (December 
17,  1906),  important  civil  suits  had  been  heard  and 
adjusted;  gamblers  and  sharpers  had  been  tried, 
convicted,  and  sentenced;  and  all  the  disreputable 
houses  kept  by  alleged  "  American  "  women  had 
been  closed  (more  than  sixty  of  them  leaving  the 
port),  and  such  clamour  raised  as  to  show  that  many 
"  vested  interests  "  had  been  hard  hit,  now  that  the 
fair  name  of  America  can  no  longer  be  trailed  in  the 
mire. 

After  this  far  too-extended  discussion  of  Amer- 
ican advantages  and  disadvantages  in  China,  the 
question  occurs  and  recurs,  why  is  it  that  as  com- 
pared with  its  capacities  and  its  opportunities,  our 
country  counts  for  so  little,  when  it  might  count  for 


192     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

so  much  ?  To  this,  different  replies  may  rightly  be 
given. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  our  disabilities  in  com- 
petition with  other  nations  and  races  is  our  appar- 
ently incurable  unwillingness  to  recognise  our  own 
defects.  We  are  intoxicated  with  our  wealth,  our 
numbers,  our  resources.  Books  like  Mr.  Carnegie's 
"  Triumphant  Democracy,"  which  flatter  the  na- 
tional vanity  without  really  touching  any  of  the 
great  underlying  problems  of  our  national  life,  find 
quick  response  among  the  multitude;  but  the  voice 
of  the  more  thoughtful  scholars  and  journals  is  lost 
in  the  din  and  dust  of  daily  activities.  Competition 
was  never  so  keen,  business  methods  never  so  un- 
compromising. The  most  alert  and  the  most  per- 
sistent will  win,  and  others  will  drop  out  and  be 
forgotten.  We  are  too  engrossed  to  be  argued  with 
or  enlightened.  The  motto  of  the  whole  American 
business  world  might  well  be:  "  Do  not  talk  to  the 
Motorman"  Education  is  too  often  valued  not  for 
what  there  is  in  it,  but  for  what  can  be  got  out  of  it. 
Intellectually,  the  cardinal  sin  of  Americans  is  super- 
ficiality. 

Some  years  ago  the  late  Bishop  of  London,  Dr. 
Creighton,  published  an  article  in  the  "  Contempo- 
rary Review,"  "  in  which  he  declared  as  the  result  of 
his  great  experience  as  a  teacher,  that  the  English 
people,  as  a  whole,  do  not  care  to  gain  knowledge, 
believed  that  it  is  no  advantage  to  be  learned,  and 
were  inclined  to  undervalue  scholars.     They  held 


ADVANTAGES    AND    DISADVANTAGES     193 

that  knowledge  of  one's  work,  as  distinguished  from 
learning,  is  desirable,  but  that  learning  is  a  load 
for  the  mind,  rather  than  a  source  of  strength." 
The  journal  from  which  the  above  is  quoted  (the 
"  New  York  Observer")  adds  that  "  if  this  is  true 
of  England,  much  more  is  it  the  case  in  America. 
As  a  nation,  we  set  no  value  upon  learning  which 
is  deep  and  recondite."  "  The  truth  is  that  neither 
Americans  nor  Englishmen  have  the  plodding  power 
of  the  Germans.  They  are  willing  to  work  hard 
for  a  special  object,  to  stake  their  whole  physical 
and  mental  force  upon  the  attainment  of  an  end ;  but 
they  will  not  toil  for  toil's  sake.  If  knowledge  is 
necessary  in  order  to  gain  wealth  or  fame,  political 
or  social  position,  they  will  yield  to  the  necessity; 
but  in  America,  at  least,  this  seldom  happens."  In 
the  keen  competition  of  the  twentieth  century  the 
best  equipped,  the  most  foresightedly  intelligent, 
nation  will  out-distance  the  rest.  Efficiency  of  all 
varieties  is  the  keynote  of  modern  business  life. 
Whatever  promotes  it  is  to  be  cultivated,  whatever 
hinders  it  is  to  be  discarded.  And  what  has  all 
this  to  do  with  American  success  in  the  Orient?  A 
business  man  of  wide  experience  in  different  Far 
Eastern  countries  was  asked  which  of  the  many 
nationalities  represented  there  furnished  the  best 
business  men,  and  instantly  and  unhesitatingly 
he  replied :  "  The  Chinese,"  explaining  that  it  was 
on  account  of  those  race-qualities  which  we  have 
already  mentioned.     "  And  who  are  the  worst  ?  " 


194     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

After  a  thoughtful  pause  he  answered:  "Amer- 
icans. They  are  too  impatient,  they  insist  on  big 
returns,  they  are  unwilling  to  bear  losses,  they  will 
not  condescend  to  small  matters,  and  they  want  their 
returns  at  once — or  they  will  quit." 

Can  it  be  true  that  as  a  nation  we  are  afflicted  with 
a  myopia  preventing  us  from  seeing  beyond  the 
shortest  distance,  and  with  a  careless  optimism 
which,  without  fatigxiing  itself  by  any  laborious 
examination  of  existing  conditions,  is  content  to  fall 
back  on  that  consoling  generalisation  (cited  some 
years  since  in  a  review  article  by  one  of  our  leading 
authorities  on  economics),  that  a  special  Providence 
watches  over  the  welfare  of  fools,  children,  and  the 
United  States? 


VIII 
America's   opportunities   and   responsibilities 

IN   CHINA 

That  the  American  Republic  and  the  Chinese  Em- 
pire must  have  an  important  relation  to  one  another 
is  an  idea  which  has  long  been  more  and  more  forc- 
ing itself  upon  the  attention  of  thoughtful  men. 
One  of  the  most  clear-sighted  of  American  states- 
men gave  explicit  expression  to  this  more  than  half- 
a-century  ago.  In  a  speech  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  July  29,  1852,  Mr.  William  H.  Seward 
said :  "  Even  the  discovery  of  this  continent  and 
its  islands,  and  the  organisation  of  society  and  gov- 
ernment upon  them,  grand  and  important  as  these 
events  have  been,  were  but  conditional,  preliminary, 
and  ancillary  to  the  more  sublime  result  now  in  the 
act  of  consummation — the  reunion  of  the  two  civili- 
sations, which,  parting  on  the  plains  of  Asia  four 
thousand  years  ago,  and  travelling  ever  after  in 
opposite  directions  around  the  world,  now  meet 
again  on  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Certainly  no  mere  human  event  of  equal  dignity  and 
importance  has  ever  occurred  upon  the  earth.  It 
will  be  followed  by  the  equalisation  of  the  condition 
of  society  and  the  restoration  of  the  unity  of  the 
human  family.  Who  does  not  see  that  henceforth 
every  year  European  commerce,  European  politics, 

195 


196     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

European  thoughts  and  European  activity,  although 
actually  gaining  greater  force,  and  European  con- 
nections, although  actually  becoming  more  intimate, 
will  nevertheless  ultimately  sink  in  importance; 
while  the  Pacific  Ocean,  its  shores,  its  islands,  and 
the  vast  regions  beyond,  will  become  the  chief  theatre 
of  events  in  the  world's  great  hereafter?  Who 
does  not  see  that  this  movement  must  effect  our 
own  complete  emancipation  from  what  remains  of 
European  influence  and  prejudice,  and  in  turn 
develop  the  American  opinion  and  influence  which 
shall  remould  constitutional  laws  and  customs  in  the 
land  that  is  first  greeted  by  the  rising  sun  ?  "  At 
the  time  when  these  words  were  uttered  they  must 
have  appeared  to  many  hearers  and  readers  as  the 
wild  dreams  of  an  unfettered  fancy,  but  those  who 
are  living  to-day  are  better  able  to  appreciate  their 
deep  significance. 

It  is  altogether  beside  the  purpose  of  this  volume 
to  discuss  the  commercial  relations  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Far  East,  which  are  the  subject  of  an 
unending  series  of  Consular  Reports,  and  of  articles 
in  journals  of  all  descriptions.  For  a  comprehen- 
sive view  of  the  economic  aspects  of  this  subject 
the  reader  is  referred  to  Dr.  Josiah  Strong's  "  Ex- 
pansion," which  condenses  into  less  than  3(X)  pages 
a  convincing  array  of  facts  and  arguments.* 

* "  Expansion  Under  New- World  Conditions,"  by  Josiah 
Strong,  New  York,  1900.  See  also  von  Schierbrand's  "  Amer- 
ica, Asia,  and  the  Pacific,"  New  York,  1904,  where  Dr.  Strong's 
arguments  are  repeated  and  amplified. 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  197 

The  following  is  a  brief  summary  of  the  author's 
conclusions : 

1.  The  astonishing  development  of  energy  and 
wealth  which  has  subdued  the  American  continent 
makes  America  the  most  forceful  and  resourceful 
nation  in  the  world.  With  ever-increasing  wealth 
and  energy,  we  shall  have  at  home  an  ever-decreas- 
ing opportunity  to  invest  and  to  apply  them.  Our 
young  men  and  our  capital  will,  therefore,  increas- 
ingly go  abroad,  and  be  found  wherever  undeveloped 
resources  and  sleepy  eighteenth-century  methods 
create  an  opportunity.  Thus  America  will  increas- 
ingly acquire  individual  and  corporate  rights  all 
over  the  world. 

2.  American  manufacturing  supremacy  gives 
every  promise  of  permanence.  Our  manufacturing 
interests  must  inevitably  become  relatively  greater, 
while  our  agricultural  interests  become  relatively 
smaller.  Our  national  welfare  will  be  increasingly 
dependent  on  foreign  markets.  We  are  already  de- 
pendent on  such  markets,  not  simply  for  industrial 
prosperity,  but  for  political  and  social  health. 

3.  The  awakening  of  China  is  a  fact  of  world 
importance  and  of  profound  significance.  To  raise 
the  standard  of  living  in  China  to  the  average 
standard  of  the  United  States,  would  be  equivalent, 
so  far  as  our  markets  are  concerned,  to  the  creation 
of  five  Americas.  To  raise  the  standard  of  living 
in  China  fifty  per  cent,  would,  commercially  speak- 
ing, add  200,000,000  to  the  world's  population. 


198     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

4.  The  completion  of  the  new  Ishmian  Canal,  by 
making  a  geographical  change  of  the  first  magni- 
tude, will  have  a  profound  effect  upon  the  world, 
and  will  confer  on  America  the  commercial  su- 
premacy of  the  Pacific. 

5.  The  Pacific  is  to  become  the  centre  of  the 
world's  population,  commerce,  wealth,  and  power. 
It  is  to  be  also  the  arena  where  the  great  races  of 
the  future  will  settle  the  question  of  free  institu- 
tions or  absolutism  for  all  mankind. 

6.  We  are  now  entering  on  a  new  world  life,  of 
which  America  is  an  organic  part.  This  creates 
new  necessities  and  new  obligations,  which  it  will 
be  impossible  to  evade.  This  is  a  commercial  age, 
and  commercial  considerations  are  the  mainspring 
of  policies.  It  is  the  supreme  interests  of  nations, 
or  what  appears  to  be  such,  which  shape  their 
politics  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  in  this  day 
industrial  and  commercial  interests  are  supreme. 
Questions  of  finance,  of  tariff,  of  expansion,  of 
colonial  policy,  of  the  open  door,  dominate  politics, 
national  and  international,  because  they  profoundly 
affect  industry  and  commerce.  It  is  idle  to  suppose 
that  we  can  be  a  part,  and  a  principal  part,  of  the 
organised  commercial  and  industrial  life  of  the 
world  and  yet  maintain  a  policy  of  isolation. 

It  is  of  pressing  importance  that  all  Americans, 
and  especially  the  large  and  influential  class  of  edu- 
cated Americans,  should  comprehend  the  nature  of 
these  world-problems  by  which  we  are  now  to  be 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  199 

more  and  more  confronted.  Our  cousins  across  the 
water  have  a  coterie  of  narrow-gauge  thinkers 
whom  they  dub  "  little  Englanders."  The  type  in 
America  is  only  too  familiar,  and  nothing  but  con- 
tinued hypodermic  injections  of  knowledge  can  be 
expected  to  work  a  radical  cure.  It  is  an  excellent 
thing  that  Senators,  Representatives,  business  men, 
and  men  of  leisure  should  personally  visit  Eastern 
lands  to  gain  first-hand  impressions  otherwise  un- 
attainable; but  it  is  highly  unfortunate  that  the 
stay  of  almost  all  travellers  is  too  brief  to  be  of 
value,  and  that  so  few  of  them  have  any  taste  or 
talent  for  a  careful  study  of  existing  conditions,  but 
are  content  to  accept  a  few  generalisations,  often 
second  or  third  hand,  and  return  to  America  radiat- 
ing a  genial  omniscience  epitomised  in  the  recurring 
phrase :  "  /  tell  you,  sir! "  and  with  an  ignorance 
which  is  only  more  elaborate  than  it  was  before. 
These  are  the  people  who,  as  Prof.  Chamberlain  of 
Tokio  remarks,  write  those  letters  and  volumes  of 
travel  which  are  mainly  composed  of  "  slush  en- 
livened by  statistics." 

If  the  manufacturers  and  the  merchants  of  the 
United  States  were  wise  in  their  generation,  they 
would  equip  frequent  expeditions  to  find  and  make 
openings  for  American  enterprise  in  the  Far  East, 
just  as  men  of  other  nations  have  long  been  doing; 
nor  would  they  be  deluded  into  supposing  that  be- 
cause we  have  "  a  big  country "  we  can  perma- 
nently get  on  without  world  markets.     It  is  only 


500     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

in  the  Scilly  Islands  that  the  inhabitants  are  re- 
ported to  "  make  their  living  by  doing  each  other's 
washing."  In  Colquhoun's  "  Mastery  of  the  Pa- 
cific "  it  is  assumed  that  the  control  of  the  commerce 
of  this  mightiest  of  oceans  will  ultimately  fall  to 
America.  But  before  this  can  take  place  there  must 
be  not  only  a  revolutionary  change  in  our  shipping 
laws,  but  also  a  material  abatement  of  our  national 
self-conceit  and  superciliousness.  "  Discussing  the 
question  as  to  what  constitutes  superiority  and  in- 
feriority of  race,  Benjamin  Kidd  declares  that  *  we 
shall  have  to  set  aside  many  of  our  old  ideas  on 
the  subject.  Neither  in  respect  alone  of  colour,  nor 
of  descent,  nor  even  the  possession  of  high  intel- 
lectual capacity,  can  science  give  us  any  warrant 
for  speaking  of  one  race  as  superior  to  another. 
Real  superiority  is  the  result,  not  so  much  in  any- 
thing inherent  in  one  race  as  distinguished  from 
another,  as  of  the  operation  upon  a  race  and  within 
it  of  certain  uplifting  forces.  Any  superiority  that 
we  now  possess  is  due  to  the  action  upon  us  of  these 
forces.  But  they  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Chi- 
nese as  well  as  upon  us.  We  should  avoid  the  pop- 
ular mistake  of  looking  at  the  Chinese  '  as  if  they 
were  merely  animals  with  a  toilet,  and  never  see 
the  great  soul  in  a  man's  face.'  "  ^  "  There  is  per- 
haps no  truer  sign  of  the  essentially  provincial  char- 
acter of  the  self-centred  white  people  than  their 
failure  to  discover  and  appreciate  the  noble  and  the 

2  "  New  Forces  in  Old  China,"  p.  33. 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  201 

beautiful  in  the  great  civilisation  of  the  Orient. 
We  have  been  blinded  to  these  by  the  selfishness  of 
our  lives,  the  greed  of  our  ambitions,  and  the  pride 
of  our  might."  ^  It  is  often  blithely  assumed  by 
Americans  that  although  we  are  not  at  present  in 
a  mood  to  interest  ourselves  in  the  Orient,  at  some 
future  time,  when  we  may  have  more  leisure,  we 
will  perhaps  look  into  the  matter.  An  American 
Consul  who  has  with  some  difficulty  discovered  an 
opening  which  by  prompt  dexterity  American  enter- 
prise might  best  fill,  will  tell  you  that  he  wrote  to 
some  of  the  large  "  home  firms,"  giving  details, 
and  advising  them  to  send  out  a  man  to  seize  the 
opportunity,  only  to  receive  in  due  time  a  curt  reply 
that  provided  the  Consul  will  guarantee  their  agent 
the  sum  of  not  less  than  (say)  eight  dollars  a  day 
from  the  time  of  boarding  his  trans-Pacific  steamer 
he  will  be  sent — otherwise  not.  And  this  at  a  time 
when  permanent  representatives  of  companies  and 
syndicates  from  every  country  in  Europe  have  long 
and  patiently  been  watching  for  chances  to  roast 
their  chestnuts  at  the  Oriental  fire! 

There  is  a  German  proverb  which  speaks  in  criti- 
cism of  him  who  sits  in  an  armchair  with  his  mouth 
wide  open,  waiting  for  roasted  pigeons  to  fly  in- 
side. There  is  likewise  a  Chinese  adage  which 
alludes  unsympathetically  to  him  who,  finding  a 
hare  asleep,  first  wakes  him,  and  then  endeavours  to 
run  him  down.     At  an  annual  dinner  of  the  Amer- 

3 "The  White  Peril,"  by  Sydney  L.  Gulick,  D.  D. 


202     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

ican  Asiatic  Association,  H.  E.  Wu  Ting-fang,  then 
Chinese  Minister  to  the  United  States,  said  :  "  We 
all  know  that  China  is  one  of  the  greatest  markets 
of  the  world,  with  a  population  of  four  hundred 
millions  that  must  be  fed  and  clothed,  and  must 
receive  the  necessaries  of  life.  She  wants  your 
wheat,  your  cotton,  your  iron  and  steel,  and  your 
manufactured  articles  of  the  New  England  States. 
She  wants  steel  rails,  electrical  machines,  and  an 
hundred  other  things  that  she  cannot  get  at  home 
and  must  get  abroad.  It  is  a  fine  field  for  Amer- 
ican industry  to  fill  these  wants.  It  is  particularly 
easy  for  you  to  reach  China  on  account  of  the  fine 
highway  you  have  on  the  Pacific,  and  especially  de- 
sirable that  you  do  so,  since  you  have  become  our 
next-door  neighbour  in  the  Philippines.  If  you  do 
not  come  up  to  your  own  expectations  and  me^t 
this  opportunity,  it  is  your  own  fault."  * 

To  this  corresponds  the  cynical  remark  of  the  late 
Marquis  Li  Hung-chang,  then  the  foremost  states- 
man in  China,  who  perfectly  understood  the  weak 
points  of  foreign  peoples :  "  If  Americans  want  the 
trade  of  China  they  must  come  after  it."  In  the 
able  and  comprehensive  discussion  (already  referred 
to)  of  "  The  Commercial  Prize  of  the  Orient,"  the 
Hon.  O.  P.  Austin  is  at  pains  to  show  how  and 
why  we  may  expect  to  increase  our  share  of  the 
Oriental  trade  and  especially  of  its  imports.  "  The 
Orient  produces  large  quantities  of  the  class  of 

♦Quoted  in  "Expansion,"  pp.  132-133. 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  203 

merchandise  which  we  must  import,  and  imports 
equally  large  quantities  of  the  class  of  merchan- 
dise which  we  produce  and  desire  to  sell.  Our 
imports  of  raw  silk,  and  tea,  and  hemp,  and  jute, 
and  tin,  and  goat-skins,  and  other  articles  of 
the  class  produced  in  the  Orient  amount  to 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  annually,  and  our 
imports  from  Asia  and  Oceania  have  grown  from 
less  than  32  millions  of  dollars  in  1870  to  190  mil- 
lions in  1904.  The  Orient  is  a  large  importer  of 
cotton  and  cotton  goods,  mineral  oils,  manufactures 
of  iron  and  steel,  flour  and  meats,  of  which  the 
United  States  is  the  world's  largest  producer."  In 
the  same  way,  "  there  seems  no  good  reason  why 
we  should  not  supply  at  least  one-half  of  the  cotton 
goods  imported  into  the  Orient,  instead  of  less  than 
one-tenth,  as  at  present."  Mineral  oil,  iron  and 
steel,  are  products  of  which  the  East  is  rapidly 
increasing  its  imports,  and  we  are  the  largest  pro- 
ducers of  these  in  the  world.  "  The  natural  advan- 
tages which  we  have  in  supplying  that  section  of 
the  world  were  shown  by  the  large  orders  for  flour 
and  meat  and  many  other  articles  which  were 
poured  in  upon  the  dealers  of  the  United  States  at 
the  opening  of  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  and  these 
hurry  orders  came  from  both  Governments,  which 
thus  agreed  at  least  upon  one  point — that  the  United 
States  is  a  natural  source  of  supply  for  that  great  sec- 
tion, at  least  in  these  important  requirements."  The 
Isthmian  Canal  will  bring  into  direct  water  connec- 


204     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

tion  with  all  parts  of  the  Orient  "  our  Mississippi 
Valley,  the  world's  greatest  producer  of  breadstuffs 
and  meat;  the  South,  the  world's  greatest  producer 
of  cotton;  our  great  iron  fields,  the  world's  largest 
producer  of  that  important  metal,  and  our  manu- 
facturing system,  which  is  the  greatest  in  the  world. 
When  all  these  great  fields  of  supply  are  given 
direct  water-communication  with  the  Orient,  they 
should  be  able  largely  to  increase  our  contributions 
to  her  requirements,  and  the  hundred  millions  of 
merchandise  which  we  now  send  each  year  to  the 
Orient  should  grow  to  at  least  five  hundred  millions." 
But  this  is  not  all.  Of  what  H.  E.  Wu  Ting-fang 
called  "  our  fine  highway  "  Mr.  Austin  remarks : 
"  We  have  a  much  greater  frontage  on  the  Pacific 
Ocean  than  any  other  nation,  and  better  harbours, 
not  only  upon  the  mainland,  but  also  the  principal 
island  harbours  of  the  entire  ocean.  Our  national 
frontage  on  the  Pacific,  considering  only  the  number 
of  nautical  miles  to  be  protected,  patrolled,  or  lighted, 
is  12,500,  while  that  of  the  United  Kingdom  is 
10,000,  Russia  a  little  over  6,000,  Japan  a  little  less 
than  5,000,  and  China  little  more  than  3,000  miles, 
so  that  our  frontage  upon  the  Pacific  exceeds 
that  of  any  other  nation."  In  addition  to  all  this, 
and  the  possession  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  Wake 
Island,  Guam,  and  the  Philippines,  as  "great  nat- 
ural telegraph  poles "  for  a  trans-Pacific  cable, 
there  is  one  other  unique  advantage  which  Mr.  Aus- 
tin illustrates  by  a  map.     "  It  will  be  seen  that  the 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  205 

equatorial  current  begins  its  westward  movement 
at  the  very  point  in  which  vessels  from  an  Isthmian 
Canal  would  enter  the  Pacific,  and  moves  steadily 
westward  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Philippines,  then 
turning  northward  along  the  coast  of  China  and 
Japan  is  deflected  to  the  east,  flows  eastwardly  across 
the  North  Pacific  to  the  American  coast,  and  then 
moves  down  the  western  coast  of  the  United  States 
to  the  point  of  beginning.  The  air  currents,  while 
their  exact  location  is  somewhat  affected  by  the 
changes  of  the  seasons,  follow  practically  the  same 
lines,  and  are  equally  certain  and  reliable."  "  This 
steady,  permanent  flow  of  air  and  water  will  never 
cease  as  long  as  the  earth  revolves  to  the  east  and  the 
great  bodies  of  land  and  water  retain  their  present 
relative  positions — must  always  give  to  the  North 
American  continent  the  advantage  in  the  commerce 
of  the  Pacific."  But  in  order  to  reap  the  full  benefits 
of  these  immense  natural  advantages  we  must,  as 
a  preliminary,  have  and  hold  the  good-will  of  the 
East.  In  every  business,  good-will,  although  intangi- 
ble, is  a  valuable  asset.  The  two  Chinese  characters 
meaning  "  business  "  literally  signify  "  a  matter 
of  the  affections"  (shih-ch'ing) ,  a  most  philo- 
sophical concept,  since  no  one  wishes  to  keep  up 
relations  with  another  who  abuses  him.  In  an  in- 
terview in  February,  1906,  the  vice-president  of  the 
Pacific  Mail  Company  is  reported  as  saying :  "  I 
suppose  that  no  race  has  ever  dealt  with  another  so 
unfairly  as  we  have  dealt  with  the  Chinese.     The 


2o6     CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

history  of  the  Exclusion  Act  makes  the  blood  of  any 
intelligent  Chinese  boil.  Officials  having  to  do  with 
the  Chinese  on  the  Pacific  Coast  have  proceeded  on 
the  theory  that  their  popularity  would  grow  in  di- 
rect ratio  to  the  number  of  Chinese  they  kept  out — 
almost,  I  might  say,  to  the  brutality  of  their  treat- 
ment. And  yet  a  boycott  of  our  own  was  the 
greatest  cause  of  the  boycott  on  American  goods." 
Although  this  topic  has  been  already  discussed  in 
another  connection,  it  deserves  repeated  mention, 
because  of  the  baseless  impression  that  despite  our 
national  eccentricities  Americans  must  be  popular  in 
China.  Whenever  we  learn  to  do  even-handed  jus- 
tice we  may  again  become  so,  but  not  earlier.  The 
city  of  San  Francisco  was  thrown  to  the  ground  in 
one  minute  of  solar  time  because  it  was  built  upon 
a  geologic  "  fault."  Let  us  see  to  it  that  our  coun- 
try's policy  is  no  longer  based  upon  a  moral  fault, 
which  must  in  the  end  bring  disaster.  But  there 
is  very  much  more  for  us  to  do  than  merely  to  set 
our  own  house  in  comparative  order. 

In  the  harbour  of  New  York  there  is  a  statue  of 
gigantic  size  presented  by  a  sister  republic  repre- 
senting "  Liberty  Enlightening  the  World."  It  has 
always  been  a  favourite  assumption  of  Americans 
that  if  we  have  something  to  learn,  we  have  also 
much  to  teach.  Just  what  that  is  admits  of  differ- 
ent answers,  especially  as  we  are  painfully  aware 
that  American  ideals  and  American  realisation  of 
those   ideals  are   by  no  means   coincident.     It  is 


OPPORTUNITIES   IN    CHINA  207 

agreed,  among  ourselves  at  least,  that  an  hundred 
and  thirty  years  of  American  autonomy  cover  many 
important  achievements  of  more  or  less  realised 
ideals.     Among  these  may  be  named: 

The  combination  of  divergent  and  heretofore  con- 
flicting local  governments  into  a  durable  common- 
wealth— ■"  E  Pluribus  Unum." 

Absolute  separation  of  Church  and  State. 

Trust  in  the  People  themselves  to  manage  their 
own  affairs. 

Manhood  suffrage  under  appropriate  limitations. 

Universal  compulsory  education. 

The  largest  opportunity  for  the  individual.  "  The 
republic  is  opportunity," 

A  sphere  for  the  influence  of  woman  far  wider 
than  was  ever  before  thought  possible. 

An  overwhelming  sentiment  in  favour  of  peace 
and  order,  and  in  favour  of  all  forms  of  arbitration. 

Although  some  of  these  ideas  may  have  been 
first  developed  in  America,  none  of  them  are  pro- 
tected by  international  copyright.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  recognise  (in  theory)  the  desirability  and 
perhaps  even  the  possibility  of  their  wide  (we  need 
not  say  universal)  extension.  The  progress  of  the 
world  always  comes  from  the  reception  and  the 
adoption  of  new  ideas,  and  some  of  these  concep- 
tions are  being  pondered  as  never  before.  At  a 
time  when  the  three  leading  countries  of  Europe  are 
torn  vifith  controversies  over  the  adjustment  of  the 
interests  of  religion  and  the  government,  America 


2o8     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

is  in  that  line,  at  least,  as  tranquil  as  the  summer 
sea.  Questions  like  those  which  have  been  named 
are  neither  Occidental  nor  Oriental,  but  belong  to 
mankind.  One  American  missionary — Dr.  Guide 
Verbeck — was  more  influential  than  any  other  fac- 
tor in  bringing  about  that  complete  religious  liberty 
which  is  now  admiringly  witnessed  in  Japan.  In 
China,  after  millenniums  of  prosy  monotony,  in  an 
eddy  of  reaction  against  innovations,  an  Imperial 
edict  has  recently  been  issued  virtually  establishing 
a  Confucian  State  religion  (although,  as  in  other 
similar  instances,  whether  anything  comes  of  it  is 
another  matter).  Has  America  any  useful  experi- 
ence to  offer  to  China  ?  The  Far  East  has  for  ages 
been  constitutionally  immobile.  Now  it  is  all  awake, 
and  a  part  of  it  is  alert. 

In  China,  woman,  as  such,  has  been  unhonoured, 
rather  than  dishonoured,  having  no  personal  name, 
but  only  two  surnames,  that  of  her  own  and  that  of 
her  husband's  family.  The  "  three  subjections  '* 
bounded  her  career — in  childhood  to  her  parents,  in 
marriage  to  her  husband,  in  widowhood  to  her  sons. 
With  the  new  ideas  now  pouring  into  China  this 
state  of  things  cannot  permanently  continue.  A 
Chinese  girl  in  a  Shanghai  mission  school  prepared 
an  original  essay  on  the  theme :  "  Liberty,  equality, 
fraternity,  inherent  in  the  idea  of  Man."  To  an 
average  Chinese  woman  the  American  educated 
woman  seems  to  belong  to  a  different  range  of  ex- 
istence— and  so  she  does.     But  is  it  not  remarkable 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  209 

that  before  American  colleges  for  Chinese  women  in 
China  have  had  time  to  be  acclimated  they  have 
suddenly  become  the  ideal  of  the  Chinese  them- 
selves?— a  change  as  revolutionary  as  that  from 
pounding  rice  with  a  stone  pestle  in  a  mortar  to 
hulling  it  in  a  mill  worked  by  electricity,  generated 
by  water-power.  American  ideas  and  ideals  have 
already  been  introduced  into  China,  where  they  are 
already  working  silently  and  out  of  sight.  Our 
greatest  influence  must  come  through  the  lives  of  the 
great  men  and  the  noble  women  with  whose  careers 
our  brief  annals  are  filled.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
the  effect  upon  Orientals  of  a  study  of  the  life  of 
George  Washington.  Nearly  sixty  years  ago  (as 
Dr.  Speer  in  the  volume  already  quoted  records) 
a  Chinese  scholar  in  a  "  General  Survey  of  Mari- 
time Countries,"  prepared  a  special  chapter  on  the 
achievements  and  character  of  Washington,  of 
which  the  following  is  the  closing  paragraph: 
"  Surely  Washington  was  an  extraordinary  man. 
His  successes  as  a  soldier  were  more  rapid  than 
those  of  Sheng  and  Kuang,  and  in  personal  courage 
he  was  superior  to  Tsao-pi  and  Liu-pang.  With 
the  two-edged  sword  (of  justice)  he  established 
the  tranquillity  of  the  country  over  an  area  of  sev- 
eral thousand  miles.  He  refused  to  receive  pecuni- 
ary recompense.  He  laboured  to  rear  an  elective 
system  of  government.  Patriotism  like  this  is  to 
be  commended  under  the  whole  heavens.  Truly  it 
reminds  us  of  our  own  three  ancient  dynasties! 


210     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

In  administering  the  government  he  fostered  vir- 
tue, he  avoided  war,  and  he  succeeded  in  making  his 
country  superior  to  all  other  nations.  I  have  seen 
his  portrait.  His  countenance  exhibits  great  men- 
tal power.  Who  must  not  concede  to  him  the  char- 
acter of  an  extraordinary  man  ?  " 

Washington  was  strongest  at  just  those  points 
where  the  Oriental  is  weakest,  and  the  Oriental  rec- 
ognises that  fact  at  a  glance.  Views  like  this  of  our 
greatest  men  have  been  fermenting  in  the  minds  of 
Japanese,  Chinese,  and  Koreans  for  a  long  time. 
A  recent  paper  mentions  that  in  a  popular  vote  of 
the  scholars  in  a  Japanese  school  as  to  their  favour- 
ite hero,  Washington  received  a  few  more  than 
sixty  votes,  and  Lincoln  almost  as  many,  while  the 
great  Japanese  war-Armiral  Togo  did  not  rise  to 
forty  ballots !  The  new  China  is  to  be  officered  and 
piloted  by  new  men.  All  the  impulses  which  have 
brought  about  the  renaissance  of  Japan,  and  those 
which  are  yet  to  do  the  same  for  China,  are  im- 
pulses from  without,  and  not  from  within.  China 
is  now  turning  to  other  nations  for  guidance  and 
for  help  in  educating  her  young  men.  It  is  but  a 
few  years  since  she  sent  her  first  students  to  Japan ; 
but  during  the  past  two  years  the  hegira  of  Chinese 
youth  to  the  Island  Empire  is  probably  without  his- 
toric parallel.  Japan  no  doubt  expects  to  pay  back 
her  age-long  debt  to  China  by  exerting  there  a  dom- 
inating influence  as  a  step  toward  her  anticipated 
hegemony  of  Asia.     Even  in  the  stress  and  strain 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  211 

of  the  Russian  war  she  set  apart  numbers  of  her 
army  and  naval  officers,  as  well  as  civilians,  for  the 
instruction  of  the  Chinese  students.  Friction  arose 
between  these  scholars  and  the  Chinese  Minister 
to  Japan,  who  was  a  Manchu,  and  the  rising  spirit 
of  Chinese  patriotism  renders  the  whole  Manchu 
race  especially  obnoxious  to  young  China. 

Freed  from  the  wonted  restrictions  of  home  and 
of  the  Confucian  training  in  which  they  were  bom, 
the  Chinese  students  resented  Japanese  control,  and 
several  thousands  of  them  returned  to  China,  some- 
times abusing  the  opportunity  afforded  them  by 
their  travel  to  write  and  to  speak  in  a  way  to  excite 
anti-dynastic  feeling,  already  far  too  strong  for 
safety.  At  the  present  time  it  is  estimated  that 
there  are  about  15,000  Chinese  in  Japan,  nearly  all 
in  Tokio,  representing  almost  every  Province  of 
the  Empire. 

The  public  vice  which  is  so  conspicuous  a  feature 
of  the  capital  of  Japan  has  never  been  known  in 
China.  It  has  demoralised  very  many  of  the  Chinese 
students.  Some  of  them  have  even  thrown  off  the 
trammels  of  Confucianism,  and  are  openly  adopting 
an  attitude  of  contempt  for  the  ancient  Sages.  One 
such  remarked  to  a  foreigner :  "  It  was  old  K'ung 
[Confucius]  who  ruined  China!"  The  only  creed 
,( aside  from  Christianity)  available  to  replace  the 
teaching  of  China's  hereditary  masters,  is  Epicure- 
anism, which  has  hitherto  never  been  in  China  a 
recognised  cult.     For  China  itself  such  a  state  of 


212     CHINA    AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

things  is  an  alarming  symptom  and  a  menace  to 
her  relations  not  with  Japan  only,  but  with  other 
nations  as  well.^  The  Court  in  Peking  has  with 
excellent  reason  long  looked  with  disfavour  upon 
this  unbalanced  influence  of  Japan,  fearing  espe- 
cially its  anti-Manchu  tendencies,  but  the  Gov- 
ernment is  apparently  quite  helpless  to  stem  the 
swelling  tide. 

Under  circumstances  such  as  these,  is  it  not  the 
part  of  wisdom  for  us  to  put  forth  our  best  exer- 
tions to  deflect  this  stream  of  students  to  our  own 
shores,  not  for  the  good  of  China  alone,  but  also 
for  the  welfare  of  America  and  of  the  world?  Our 
former  ill-treatment  of  those  who  in  the  past  have 
desired  to  come  is  the  greater  reason  for  the  adop- 
tion of  this  policy  upon  a  large  scale.  A  Chinese 
gentleman  once  said  to  the  writer  that  he  would 
much  have  preferred  to  have  his  son  study  in  the 
United  States,  but  having  vainly  spent  six  months 
of  time  and  much  money  in  the  effort  to  get  him  into 
the  country,  he  had  sent  him  to  more  hospitable 
England.  The  unmitigated  folly  of  our  course  of 
action  is  now  becoming  manifest  even  to  ourselves. 
It  only  requires  an  educated  public  opinion  not 
merely  to  remove  restrictions,  but  to  extend  a  wel- 
come to  Chinese  students  to  our  educational  institu- 
tions all  over  the  land. 

•^  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  international  committee 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  with  characteristic  foresight  and  energy, 
has  undertaken  a  work  of  broad  range  among  these  students, 
from  which  large  results  are  sure  to  flow. 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  213 

As  an  excellent  specimen  of  various  papers  which 
have  been  indited  upon  this  subject  of  national  and 
international  importance,  the  reader  may  be  glad 
to  have  the  opportunity  of  perusing  one  written 
early  in  1906  by  a  distinguished  American  educator, 
submitted  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
privately  circulated. 

"  Memorandum  concerning  the  sending  of  an 
Educational  Commission  to  China,  by  Edmund  J. 
James,  President  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 

"  The  recent  developments  in  the  Orient  have 
made  it  apparent  that  China  and  the  United  States 
are  destined  to  come  into  ever  more  intimate  re- 
lations, social,  intellectual,  and  commercial.  The 
Chinese  will  come  to  this  country  for  the  purpose  of 
studying  our  institutions  and  our  industry.  A 
striking  evidence  of  this  fact  is  afforded  by  the  work 
of  the  Chinese  Commission  now  or  lately  in  the 
United  States.  Our  own  people  will  go  to  China 
for  the  purpose  of  studying  Chinese  institutions  and 
industry.  Anything  which  will  stimulate  this  mu- 
tual intercourse  and  increase  mutual  knowledge 
must  redound  to  the  benefit  of  both  nations. 

"  A  great  service  would  be  done  to  both  coun- 
tries if  the  Government  of  the  United  States  would 
at  the  present  juncture  send  an  educational  com- 
mission to  China,  whose  chief  function  should  be  to 
visit  the  Imperial  Government,  and  with  its  consent 
each  of  the  provincial  governments  of  the  Em- 
pire, for  the  purpose  of  extending  through  the  au- 


214     CHINA   AND    AMERICA    TO-DAY 

thority  of  these  Provinces  to  the  young  Chinese  who 
may  go  abroad  to  study,  a  formal  invitation  on  the 
part  of  our  American  institutions  of  learning  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  facilities  of  such  institutions.  The 
appointment  of  such  a  commission  would  draw  still 
closer  the  bonds  which  unite  these  two  great  na- 
tions in  sympathy  and  friendship. 

"  China  is  upon  the  verge  of  a  revolution.  It  will 
not,  of  course,  be  as  rapid  as  was  the  revolution  in 
Japan,  if  for  no  other  reason,  because  of  the  vast 
numbers  of  the  nation  and  the  enormous  extent  of 
its  territory.  But  it  is  not  believed  that  this  rev- 
olution which  has  already  begun  can  ever  again 
suffer  more  than  a  temporary  backset  and  reaction. 

"  Every  great  nation  in  the  world  will  inevi- 
tably be  drawn  into  more  or  less  intimate  relations 
with  this  gigantic  development.  It  is  for  them  to 
determine,  each  for  itself,  what  these  relations  shall 
be, — ^whether  those  of  amity  and  friendship  and 
kindness,  or  those  of  brute  force  and  *  the  mailed 
fist.'  The  United  States  ought  not  to  hesitate  as 
to  its  choice  in  this  matter.  The  nation  which  suc- 
ceeds in  educating  the  young  Chinese  of  the  pres- 
ent generation  will  be  the  nation  which  for  a  given 
expenditure  of  effort  will  reap  the  largest  possible 
returns  in  moral,  intellectual,  and  commercial  in- 
fluence. If  the  United  States  had  succeeded  thirty- 
five  years  ago,  as  it  looked  at  one  time  as  if  it 
might,  in  turning  the  current  of  Chinese  students 
to  this  country,  and  had  succeeded  in  keeping  that 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  215 

current  large,  we  should  to-day  be  controlling  the 
development  of  China  in  that  most  satisfactory  and 
subtle  of  all  ways, — through  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  domination  of  its  leaders. 

"  China  has  already  sent  hundreds,  indeed  thou- 
sands, of  its  young  men  into  foreign  countries  to 
study.  It  is  said  that  there  are  more  than  five 
thousand  Chinese  studying  in  Japan,  while  there  are 
many  hundreds  in  Europe — three  hundred  in  the 
little  state  of  Belgium  alone.  This  means  that  when 
these  Chinese  return  from  Europe  they  will  advise 
China  to  imitate  Europe  rather  than  America, — 
England,  France,  and  Germany,  instead  of  the 
United  States.  It  means  that  they  will  recommend 
English  and  French  and  German  teachers  and  en- 
gineers for  employment  in  China  in  positions  of 
trust  and  responsibility  rather  than  American.  It 
means  that  English,  French,  and  German  goods  will 
be  bought  instead  of  American,  and  that  industrial 
concessions  of  all  kinds  will  be  made  to  Europe  in- 
stead of  to  the  United  States.  Now  it  is  natural,  of 
course,  that  the  vast  majority  of  Chinese  youth 
should  go  to  Japan  to  study  rather  than  to  European 
countries  or  the  United  States,  owing  to  its  prox- 
imity, to  racial  affinity,  and  to  the  smaller  cost  of 
travel  and  living.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Chinese  are 
in  many  points  jealous  of  the  Japanese,  and,  other 
things  being  equal,  would  often  prefer  to  send  their 
young  people  to  other  countries.  Among  all  these 
countries  the  United  States  would  be  the  most  nat- 


2i6     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

ural  one  to  choose,  if  it  had  not  been  for  our  anti- 
Chinese  legislation,  and  still  more  for  the  unfriendly 
spirit  in  which  we  have  administered  this  legisla- 
tion, for  the  Chinese  Government  at  any  rate  never 
really  objected  to  our  legislation  directed  toward 
preventing  the  immigration  of  Chinese  labourers,  but 
only  to  the  manner  in  which  we  passed  such  laws 
and  the  way  in  which  we  administered  them. 

"  We  are  the  natural  friends  of  the  Chinese.  We 
have  been  their  real  political  friends.  We  have 
stood  between  the  Chinese  Empire  and  dismember- 
ment; we  have  come  more  nearly  giving  them  the 
square  deal  in  all  our  relations  in  the  East  than  any 
other  nation.  They  are  consequently  less  suspi- 
cious of  us,  as  far  as  our  politics  are  concerned, 
than  of  any  other  people.  Their  justly  sore  feel- 
ing over  our  treatment  of  Chinese  gentlemen  in  our 
custom-houses  will  yield  quickly  to  fair  and  de- 
cent conduct  on  our  part.  It  is  believed  that  by 
a  very  small  effort  the  good-will  of  the  Chinese  may 
now  be  won  over  in  a  large  and  satisfactory  way.  We 
may  not  admit  the  Chinese  labourer,  but  we  can 
treat  the  Chinese  student  decently,  and  extend  to  him 
the  facilities  of  our  institutions  of  learning.  Our  col- 
leges and  universities  are  to-day  far  better  adapted 
for  giving  the  average  Chinese  student  what  he  de- 
sires in  the  way  of  European  civilisation,  than  the 
schools  and  colleges  of  any  European  country.  We 
need  but  to  bring  these  facts  to  their  attention  in 
order  to  secure  their  attendance  here,  with  all  the 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  217 

beneficial  results  which  would  flow  from  such  an 
opportunity  to  influence  the  entire  current  of  their 
thought  and  feelings. 

"  If  a  commissioner  with  one  or  two  assistants 
were  sent  to  China  representing  the  American  Gov- 
ernment in  a  formal  way  in  the  field  of  education, 
and  should  extend  to  the  Chinese  people,  through 
the  Government  at  Peking  and  through  the  pro- 
vincial governments,  a  cordial  invitation  from  the 
United  States,  and  from  the  institutions  of  higher 
learning  in  the  United  States  to  avail  themselves  of 
these  advantages  exactly  as  they  would  if  they  were 
their  own  institutions,  it  is  apparent  that  a  great 
impression  might  be  produced  upon  the  Chinese 
people.  The  Chinese  appreciate,  as  well  as  we, 
the  compliment  implied  in  sending  a  formal  com- 
mission of  this  sort  to  another  country.  It  is  a 
recognition  such  as  any  country  might  be  proud  of, 
and  the  Chinese  are  a  singularly  proud  and  sensi- 
tive people  in  everything  that  concerns  their  own 
dignity. 

"  Such  a  commission  going  to  each  of  the  Prov- 
inces would  have  an  opportunity  to  give  the  Chi- 
nese Government  much  information  about  the 
United  States  and  its  educational  institutions;  and 
as  the  inquiries  of  such  governments  would  not  be 
limited,  of  course,  to  education  and  educational 
institutions,  so  the  information  spread  abroad 
throughout  China  would  not  relate  simply  to  edu- 
cational matters,  but  to  industrial  and  commercial 


2i8     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

as  well.  It  would  be  possible,  through  this  method 
of  coming  in  contact  with  influential  Chinese,  to 
recommend  directly  to  them  in  response  to  their  re- 
quests, American  teachers,  engineers,  and  other 
people  whose  services  they  might  like  to  obtain.  I 
mention  this  point  especially  because  I  know  that 
the  leading  Chinese  statesmen  are  anxious  to  get 
just  the  right  kind  of  men  from  America  and  Eu- 
rope as  assistants  in  all  sorts  of  business  and  gov- 
ernmental enterprises,  having  had  myself,  during  the 
last  year,  four  inquiries  from  different  Chinese  gov- 
ernments for  young  men  who  would  be  willing  to 
spend  five  or  six  years  in  the  Chinese  public  service 
in  responsible  and  influential  positions. 

"  In  a  word,  the  visit  of  such  a  commission  would 
exert  a  manifold  and  far-reaching  influence,  ex- 
ceeding greatly  in  value  any  possible  cost  of  the 
enterprise.  It  would  have  results  in  many  unex- 
pected directions  outrunning  all  our  present  antic- 
ipations, and  showing  new  and  surprising  possibil- 
ities of  usefulness  in  the  fields  of  education,  business, 
and  statesmanship.  The  extension  of  such  moral 
influence  as  this  would,  even  in  a  purely  material 
sense,  mean  a  larger  return  for  a  given  outlay  than 
could  be  obtained  in  any  other  manner.  Trade  fol- 
lows moral  and  spiritual  domination  far  more  inev- 
itably than  it  follows  the  flag." 

If  this  wise  and  statesmanlike  proposal  of  Presi- 
dent James  has  not  thus  far  resulted  in  action,  it 
must  be  due  to  inertia  on  the  American  side  of  the 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  219 

Pacific,  and  not  to  the  probability  of  opposition  in 
China.  The  matter  should  by  no  means  be  suffered 
to  rest  until  something  is  accomplished.  As  soon 
as  the  importance  of  welcoming  Chinese  students  to 
America  under  existing  conditions  was  brought  to 
the  attention  of  the  Overseers  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity they  at  once  voted  to  extend  through  the  Chi- 
nese Imperial  Commissioners  then  in  the  country 
to  the  Chinese  Government  an  invitation  for  ten 
Chinese  students  to  attend  that  institution.  The 
same  step  was  soon  after  taken  by  Yale  University ; 
and  on  behalf  of  Chinese  women,  to  whom  three 
scholarships  were  offered,  by  the  trustees  of  Welles- 
ley  College,  an  institution  which  the  Imperial  Com- 
missioners visited  at  the  special  command  of  the 
Empress  Dowager,  who  had  become  greatly  inter- 
ested in  what  she  had  heard  of  American  education 
for  women.  When  the  immense  influence  which 
has  been  exerted  in  Japan  by  the  comparatively 
small  number  of  her  daughters  who  have  been  edu- 
cated in  America  is  remembered,  the  importance  of 
this  small  beginning  for  her  sister  empire  may  be 
faintly  forecast.  But  all  these  movements,  and 
many  others  like  them,  are  utterly  inadequate  to 
cope  with  the  present  opportunity  and  emergency. 
It  is  well  known  that  after  all  public  and  private 
claims  arising  from  the  Boxer  disturbances  of  1900 
have  been  satisfied,  there  will  eventually  remain  in 
the  hands  of  the  American  Government  a  sum  of 
perhaps  $20,cxx),ooo  (gold),  a  part  of  the  indem- 


220     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

nity  of  450,000,000  taels  of  silver  arranged  by  all 
the  Powers  in  the  peace  protocol  of  1901. 

Upon  two  previous  occasions,  once  with  China 
and  once  with  Japan,  the  American  Government  has 
established  a  precedent  (so  far  as  appears  unique 
among  nations)  of  returning  unexpended  balances 
of  indemnities. 

The  suggestion  is  often  made  that  this  money 
should  be  treated  in  the  same  way  as  its  predeces- 
sors. Many  Americans,  however,  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  China's  condition,  are  profoundly 
convinced  that  if  such  a  sum  were  handed  back  to 
China  without  conditions,  it  would  at  once  be  applied 
to  purposes  which  would  distinctly  endanger  the 
peace  of  the  world,  and  make  more  difficult  and  in- 
soluble a  problem  already  taxing  the  ingenuity  of 
the  Occident  to  deal  with.  It  is  of  course  easy  to 
say  that  if  this  money  is  ours  we  should  keep  it ;  if 
it  belongs  to  China,  to  China  it  should  go.  But  is 
it  not  perfectly  reasonable  to  claim,  as  many  do 
claim,  that  this  sum  represents  not  merely  replacing 
value  of  fixed  capital  destroyed,  but  that  it  should 
be  considered  as  a  punitive  indemnity  for  a  great 
criminal  act  of  Chinese  officials,  and  in  reality  of 
the  Chinese  Government,  against  the  American  Gov- 
ernment in  the  person  of  its  Legation?  We  are 
under  as  much  obligation  to  see  that  this  money  is 
so  used  as  to  make  similar  outbreaks  in  future  more 
difficult  as  we  are  to  return  if  at  all.  Ought  we  not, 
acting  upon  the  wise  suggestion  of  President  James, 


OPPORTUNITIES   IN    CHINA         221 

to  propose  to  the  Chinese  Government  to  use  this 
sum  (which  will  fall  due  annually  for  a  genera- 
tion to  come),  or  at  least  a  part  of  it,  in  educating 
Chinese  students  in  the  United  States? 

During  the  preceding  hundred  years  there  has 
been  a  mighty  collision  between  the  civilisation  of 
the  West  and  the  civilsation  of  the  East.  We  have 
had  commerce,  followed  by  war,  and  war  succeeded 
by  diplomacy.  The  W^estern  nations  have  estab- 
lished Legations  at  Peking,  and  consulates  at  the 
ports,  while  the  Chinese  have  been  persuaded  to 
establish  Legations  in  Western  lands  and  consulates 
in  foreign  ports  to  look  after  the  interests  of  Chi- 
nese subjects.  Thus  times  have  vastly  changed 
since  1858,  when  "  one  of  the  Chinese  plenipoten- 
tiaries, in  response  to  a  suggestion  that  his  Gov- 
ernment should  appoint  consuls  abroad  to  look  after 
the  interests  of  the  Emperor's  subjects  settled  in 
foreign  lands,  said :  "  When  the  Emperor  rules  over 
so  many  millions,  what  does  he  care  for  a  few  waifs 
that  have  drifted  away  to  a  foreign  land  ?  "  It  was 
stated  that  some  of  those  in  the  United  States  were 
growing  rich  from  the  gold  mines  and  that  they 
might  be  worth  looking  after  on  that  account.  "  The 
Emperor*s  wealth,"  he  replied,  "  is  beyond  compu- 
tation; why  should  he  care  for  those  of  his  sub- 
jects who  have  left  their  home,  or  for  the  sands 
they  have  scooped  together?"®  It  is  not  so  long 
ago  that  diplomacy  was  counted  upon  to  settle  all 

•Foster's  "American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,"  pp.  278-9. 


222     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

the  issues  between  the  East  and  the  West  as  soon 
as  China  should  have  been  beguiled  into  the  "  sis- 
terhood of  nations  " ;  but  the  ultimate  outcome  of 
this  process,  deftly  mingled  with  perpetual  Western 
aggression  and  outrage,  was  the  Boxer  movement, 
and  the  siege  of  the  Legations  in  Peking.  The  cli- 
max of  this  "  diplomacy "  was  exhibited  in  1901, 
when  the  Powers  found  it  difficult  to  agree  upon 
anything;  and  when  at  last  they  did  agree,  the  net 
result  of  their  elaborate  specifications  (except  only 
the  indemnity)  was,  after  a  few  years  had  elapsed, 
as  nearly  as  possible  nothing  at  all.  The  world 
is  slowly  and  with  difficulty  becoming  disabused 
of  its  obsession  that  commerce  is  in  itself  an  ele- 
vating agency.  On  the  contrary,  when  unregulated 
by  conscience,  it  furnishes  fire-water  and  fire-arms 
to  savages,  engages  in  the  slave  trade  and  the  coolie 
traffic,  and  in  the  "  red  rubber  "  atrocities  on  the 
Congo,  at  which  the  civilised  world  is  aghast, 
"  Commerce,  like  the  rainbow,  bends  toward  the  pot 
of  gold."  Neither  is  moral  renovation  to  be  expected 
from  such  industrial  revolution  as  is  taking  place  in 
Japan,  and  will  within  a  few  decades  wholly  trans- 
form China.  Listen  to  "  The  Bitter  Cry  of  the 
Children,"  and  see  how  even  in  our  own  Christian 
land  we  are  barely  able  (if  indeed  we  are  as  yet  able) 
to  check  the  downward  tendencies  of  unregulated 
industrialism  which  wrecks  the  lives  of  women  and 
destroys  more  children  and  youth  than  an  army 
of  Minotaurs.    A  critic  of  our  civilisation,  writing 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  223 

under  the  guise  of  a  Chinese,  bitterly  complains  of 
the  persistent  attempts  of  the  Occident  to  substitute 
for  the  old  Chinese  "  moral  order  "  Western  "  eco- 
nomic chaos."  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  this 
contention,  for  it  is  as  good  as  certain  that  when 
China  shall  have  been  quite  drawn  into  the  modem 
commercial  and  industrial  maelstrom,  while  she  will 
be  financially  richer,  she  will  be  morally  poorer. 

Much  light  has  come  to  China  from  many  sources, 
unwilling  as  she  has  been  to  receive  it.  The  for- 
eign-controlled Imperial  Maritime  Customs  has 
been  a  standing  object  lesson  in  Occidental  methods 
of  honestly  administering  great  public  trusts,  but 
the  Chinese  would  be  glad  to  be  rid  of  the  foreign 
element,  when,  without  higher  motives  than  rule  at 
present,  "  Chaos  and  Old  Night "  would  soon  set 
in  again.  An  able  and  intelligent  foreign  press, 
the  large  body  of  foreign  residents  in  Chinese  ports, 
and  especially  the  Chinese  students  who  have  been 
educated  abroad,  have  all  had  an  important  though 
widely  different  part  in  the  gradual  leavening  of 
a  small  portion  of  China.  Yet  these  have  only 
touched  the  fringes  of  the  Empire,  or  the  banks  of 
its  chief  river.  But  there  has  been  in  China  another 
force  incomparably  more  influential  than  all  of  these 
combined.  It  is  the  originally  small,  but  always 
steadily  growing  body  of  Protestant  missionaries,'^ 

'  Only  Protestant  missionaries  are  mentioned,  for  the 
reason  that  the  methods  and  the  objects  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  societies  are  altogether  different  in  kind  and  in 
results. 


224     CHINA    AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

beginning  a  century  ago  with  a  single  Englishman, 
and  now  numbering  more  than  3,800,  from  six  dif- 
ferent countries  of  Europe,  and  from  all  quarters  of 
the  British  Empire,  the  United  States  being  (at  the 
end  of  1906)  represented  by  1,562  persons.  These 
men  and  women  instead  of  living  beside  the  Chi- 
nese, as  do  residents  of  the  ports,  live  among  them 
in  cities,  towns,  and  hamlets  in  every  Province  of 
the  Empire,  speaking  every  dialect,  going  every- 
where, inquiring  into  everything,  constantly  meet- 
ing and  mingling  with  all  classes  of  Chinese,  from 
officials  in  their  yamens  to  coolies  and  beggars  on 
the  street.  Much  knowledge  of  China  has,  indeed, 
come  to  the  outside  world  from  other  than  mission- 
ary sources;  but  for  many  decades  nearly  all  trust- 
worthy information  of  outside  countries  which 
filtered  into  the  minds  of  the  bulk  of  the  Chinese 
people  came  through  missionary  channels. 

Upon  the  spiritual  aspect  of  their  work  (the  most 
important  because  fundamental)  it  is  aside  from  our 
purpose  to  dwell  further  than  to  remark  that  uni- 
versal experience  has  shown  that  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  into  any  land  is  the  most  powerful 
moral  force  in  human  history. 

The  object  and  the  result  of  these  labours  is  not 
the  making  of  isolated  converts,  but  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  new  moral  and  spiritual  climate — a  very 
different  matter.  Before  China  could  be  trans- 
formed, it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  a  vast  Chi- 
nese Wall  of  prejudice  should  be  not  only  scaled, 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  22t^ 

or  tunnelled,  but  levelled  to  the  ground.  In  spite 
of  some  inevitable  crudities  of  method,  and  errors 
of  judgment,  this  work  has  gone  steadily  forward, 
and  a  large — ^but  incalculable — part  of  the  changes 
in  China  are  the  direct  or  the  indirect  result  of  these 
forces. 

For  more  than  ninety  years  Americans  in  China 
have  been  engaged  (like  their  comrades  from  other 
lands)  in  exclusively  altruistic  labour.  They  have 
explored  the  Chinese  language  and  literature,  trans- 
lated the  Bible,  and  prepared  not  merely  Christian 
books,  but  others  of  general  value  and  importance 
for  the  enlightenment  of  the  Chinese  people.  For 
carrying  on  this  work  they  have  equipped  nine 
presses,  which  issue  annually  119,000,000  pages. 
American  hospitals  and  dispensaries  are  scattered 
from  one  end  of  China  to  the  other.  One  of  the 
oldest  and  largest  is  carried  on  in  the  city  of  Can- 
ton, where  foreign  intercourse  with  China  began, 
and  where  the  late  Dr.  John  G.  Kerr,  who  gave 
more  than  fifty  years  of  fruitful  service  in  preparing 
medical  literature  and  in  training  medical  students 
had  in  some  forms  of  surgical  practice  a  world-wide 
reputation.  It  is  at  Canton,  also,  that  American 
women  doctors  have  opened  the  only  Woman's  Med- 
ical College  in  China,  the  precursor,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  of  many  successors  for  the  training  of  Chi- 
nese women  physicians,  to  alleviate  the  woes  of  the 
millions  of  Chinese  women. 

It  was  at  Canton  that  Dr.  Peter  Parker  began 


226     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

as  a  missionary  of  the  American  Board  a  brilliant 
career,  "  opening  China  at  the  point  of  the  lancet," 
and  doing  more  than  anyone  of  his  time  to  dispel 
Chinese  prejudice.  He  acted  as  Chinese  Secretary 
at  the  negotiation  of  the  first  American  treaty,  be- 
ing subsequently  himself  appointed  Minister.  It 
was  likewise  to  Canton  that  Dr.  S.  Wells  Williams 
went  out  under  the  American  Board  as  a  printer, 
becoming  one  of  the  most  variously  learned  men  in 
China,  numbering  among  his  activities  the  editor- 
ship of  "  The  Chinese  Repository  " ;  the  compilation 
of  a  dictionary  of  the  Cantonese  dialect ;  the  service 
of  interpreter  to  Commodore  Perry  in  negotiating 
the  famous  treaty  which  opened  Japan  to  the  world ; 
the  position  of  perpetual  secretary  of  the  United 
States  Legation — ^being  charge  nine  different  times ; 
the  authorship  of  a  great  dictionary  of  the  Chinese 
language,  in  its  day  the  best  extant,  and  of  the 
most  accurate  and  most  comprehensive  thesaurus  of 
information  about  China,  "  The  Middle  Kingdom." 
It  was  to  Canton  that  Dr.  A.  P.  Happer  gave  more 
than  fifty  years  of  his  life,  leaving  behind  him  as  a 
monument  the  Canton  Christian  College. 

Dr.  E.  C.  Bridgman  was  the  earliest  American 
missionary  to  reach  China  (1830)  under  the  Amer- 
ican Board,  where  he  found  a  British  pioneer,  Dr. 
Morrison,  after  twenty-three  years  still  without 
a  companion.  Dr.  Bridgman  founded  and  for 
twenty  years  edited  "  The  Chinese  Repository,"  a 
magazine  which  did  much  to  make  China  known  to 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  227 

the  outer  world.  Like  Dr.  Parker,  he  was  appointed 
Chinese  Secretary  at  the  negotiation  of  the  first 
American  treaty.  He  removed  to  Shanghai  in 
1847  to  join  a  committee  in  the  translation  of  the 
Bible.  He  was  the  first  president  of  the  China  branch 
of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society.  His  associate  in  trans- 
lation work  was  the  Rev.  M.  S.  Culbertson,  who 
graduated  at  West  Point  with  Halleck,  Beauregard, 
and  Sherman,  and  when  he  determined  to  go  to 
China  he  held  a  commission  as  second  lieutenant  in 
the  United  States  army.  Dr.  D.  B.  McCartee  was 
another  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Mission  in 
Ningpo — a  man  of  special  gifts,  who  after  twenty- 
eight  years  of  work  for  China  had  the  remarkable 
fortune  to  give  as  many  more  to  Japan,  where  he  was 
for  some  years  Professor  in  the  University  of  Tokio. 
Dr.  John  L.  Nevius,  who  removed  from  Ningpo  to 
Chefoo,  was  known  to  foreigners  in  general  as  the 
introducer  into  China  of  excellent  American  fruits; 
to  the  Chinese  by  numerous  books  in  that  lan- 
guage, and  by  his  phenomenal  country  mission 
work ;  and  to  missionary  experts  by  his  writings  on 
"  Methods  of  Mission  Work  "  and  "  Demon  Posses- 
sion in  China."  Dr.  C.  W.  Mateer,  of  the  same  mis- 
sion, has  given  somewhat  less  than  fifty  years  of  his 
life  to  education  in  China,  having  published  a  group 
of  mathematical  and  other  text-books  in  Chinese ;  an 
elaborate  and  compendious  course  of  study  for  stu- 
dents of  the  Chinese  language,  and  having  devoted 
much  attention  to  the  revision  of  the  New  Testa- 


228     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

ment  in  mandarin.  One  of  his  associates  in  this 
work  is  Dr.  Chauncey  Goodrich,  for  more  than 
forty  years  in  China,  a  theological  teacher,  hymnol- 
ogist,  and  author  of  a  Chinese  syllabary.  Another 
educator  of  distinction  is  Dr.  D.  Z.  Sheffield,  who 
has  long  been  president  of  the  College  at  T'ung 
Chou  (near  Peking),  and  is  the  author  of  a  Uni- 
versal History,  besides  works  in  Theology,  Church 
History,  Political  Economy,  and  Ethics.  The  late 
Dr.  S.  I.  J.  Schereschewsky  was  a  very  learned 
American  Russian  Lithuanian  Jew,  who  did  a 
unique  work  in  translating,  single-handed,  the  whole 
of  the  Old  Testament  into  the  Mandarin  language, 
followed  by  the  Book  of  Prayer.  During  the  last 
twenty  years  of  his  life,  although  so  paralysed  as 
to  be  unable  to  speak  clearly,  or  to  write  at  all,  he 
yet  by  means  of  a  typewriter  and  a  system  of  ro- 
manisation  of  Chinese  characters  translated  the 
whole  Bible  from  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek 
into  the  literary  style  of  Chinese,  the  result  being 
published  by  the  American  Bible  Society  in  1902. 
He  revised  his  Mandarin  Old  Testament,  prepared 
a  reference  Bible  for  the  American  Bible  Society, 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  engaged  in  the 
translation  of  the  Apocrypha.  In  the  case  of 
these  men,  there  are  few  examples  in  history  of 
such  perseverance  under  difficulties,  apparently  in- 
surmountable, crowned  by  such  complete  success. 

The  octogenarian.  Dr.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  still  liv- 
ing in  Peking   (originally    of    the    Presbyterian 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  229 

Board),  was  long  at  the  head  of  the  School  of  Lan- 
guages which  furnished  most  of  the  translators  and 
interpreters  for  the  Chinese  Government.  At  a 
later  date  he  was  named  in  "  The  Peking  Gazette  " 
as  president  of  the  Peking  University,  and  given 
a  high  Chinese  title. 

He  is  the  author  of  many  important  works,  both 
in  Chinese  and  in  English.  Dr.  Young  J.  Allen 
(nearly  fifty  years  in  China)  was  for  many  years 
at  the  head  of  the  Anglo-Chinese  College  in  Shang- 
hai, and  has  long  been  editor  of  "  The  Review  of 
the  Times,"  a  Chinese  monthly,  which  is  literally 
a  magazine  of  information,  the  largest  single  win- 
dow through  which  the  Chinese  have  ever  looked 
out  upon  the  world.  It  enters  very  many  of  the 
yamens  in  China,  and  has  long  been,  in  its  way,  the 
most  influential  periodical  in  the  Chinese  Empire. 
Dr.  Allen  is  also  author  of  a  compendious  and  de- 
tailed "  History  of  the  War  with  Japan,"  with  a 
huge  supplement  giving  the  inside  telegraphic  history 
of  the  war,  with  copies  of  all  the  despatches  back  and 
forth,  the  latter  being  privately  furnished  by  H.  E. 
Li  Hung-chang.  The  sale  of  these  works  has  been 
enormous,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  copyright  law, 
they  have  been  honoured  by  perpetual  and  almost 
universal  piracy  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese. 

At  the  time  of  the  projected  reforms  of  1898, 
the  Emperor  sent  not  only  for  all  the  back  numbers 
of  the  "  Review  "  from  the  beginning,  but  for  copies 
of  all  the  publications  of  the  Useful  Knowledge  So- 


230     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

ciety,  by  which  it  was  pubHshed.  Dr.  C.  D.  Tenney 
(once  a  missionary  of  the  American  Board)  began 
on  a  small  scale  the  education  of  Chinese  youth,  in- 
terested leading  Chinese  officials  in  the  matter,  from 
Li  Hung-chang  downward,  and  was  the  means  of 
organising  the  Tientsin  University,  which  he  con- 
ducted until  the  Boxer  year,  after  which  he  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  new  Government  Univer- 
sity at  Tientsin,  with  the  superintendency  of  all  the 
schools  in  the  metropolitan  Province  of  Chihli,  it 
being  planned  to  make  them  the  model  for  other 
Provinces.  He  is  now  in  the  United  States  super- 
vising the  education  of  a  party  of  more  than  forty 
Chinese  students.  Dr.  Watson  M.  Hayes  (American 
Presbyterian  Mission)  accepted  the  invitation  of 
Yuan  Shih-k'ai,  then  Governor  of  Shantung,  to  or- 
ganise the  new  Provincial  University.  The  detailed 
course  of  study  was  submitted  by  the  Governor 
in  a  memorial  to  the  Throne  during  the  exile  of 
the  Court  at  Singan  fu,  and  was  made  by  Imperial 
Decree  the  model  to  which  all  other  Provincial 
Universities  were  to  conform.  Dr.  Gilbert  Reid 
of  Shanghai,  formerly  of  the  American  Presby- 
terian Mission,  has  laboured  for  many  years  to  es- 
tablish an  "International  Institute"  (educational), 
which  shall  be  a  medium  for  a  better  understanding 
of  each  other  by  Chinese  and  foreigners.  The  en- 
terprise is  supported  by  a  large  Society,  comprising 
many  Chinese  officials  and  merchants,  as  well  as  by 
subscribers  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 


OPPORTUNITIES   IN    CHINA  231 

Last,  but  far  from  least,  we  place  the  name  of  a 
missionary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church — 
Frank  D.  Gamewell — whose  fortification  of  the 
British  Legation  in  Peking,  during  the  siege,  was 
declared  by  the  British  General  Gaselee  to  be  "  be- 
yond all  praise,"  and  who  was  perhaps  the  only 
man  among  the  many  hundreds  there  imprisoned, 
the  preservation  of  whose  life  was,  humanly  speak- 
ing, essential  as  a  means  of  saving  all  the  rest. 

It  should  not  escape  notice  that  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  those  whose  names  have  been  specially 
mentioned  were  distinguished  in  connection  with 
'teaching.  Education  may,  indeed,  be  said  always 
to  have  been  with  Americans  in  China  a  specialty. 
The  list  of  great  teachers  would  not  be  complete 
without  the  addition  of  the  pioneer  of  them  all — 
Dr.  S.  R.  Brown,  who  taught  the  Morrison  School 
at  Macao  and  Hongkong  from  1839  to  1846. 
Among  Dr.  Brown's  pupils  was  a  bright  lad  of 
an  obscure  and  poor  family,  afterwards  known  to 
fame  as  Dr.  Yung  Wing.  It  was  he  who,  as  already 
mentioned,  in  1872  and  1873,  ^^ok  large  parties  of 
Chinese  students  to  be  educated  in  the  United  States 
— a  great  stream  flowing  from  a  tiny  crevice.  Of 
the  fourteen  institutions  claiming  a  college  grade  in 
China,  twelve,  in  nearly  every  maritime  Province 
and  up  the  Yang-tzu,  are  American.  The  educa- 
tional Association  of  China  is  a  body  of  practical 
teachers  in  the  Empire,  meeting  triennially  for  the 
discussion  of  educational  problems  and  for  unity 


^32     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

of  action.  According  to  its  latest  report  (1905), 
of  the  total  British  and  American  membership  more 
than  77  per  cent,  was  American.  The  only  insti- 
tutions in  China,  of  college  grade,  for  Chinese 
women,  are  American.  The  total  number  of  Amer- 
ican schools  and  colleges  of  all  sorts  is  probably 
considerably  in  excess  of  one  thousand.  The  influ- 
ence of  such  educational  centres  in  an  Oriental  em- 
pire, until  recently  still  in  the  Middle  Ages,  has 
been  altogether  out  of  proportion  to  the  number  of 
teachers.  These  institutions  have  been  active  dy- 
namos throwing  out  light  and  heat  in  all  directions. 
The  pupils  have  often  become  teachers  in  Govern- 
ment schools,  passing  on  to  others  the  impetus 
which  they  have  themselves  received.  The  most 
eminent  Chinese  officials  have  often  been  cordial  in 
the  expression  of  their  appreciation  of  the  benefits 
which  they  received  from  American  efforts.  On 
his  visit  to  America  the  late  Marquis  Li  Hung- 
chang  once  said  to  a  delegation  which  waited  upon 
him:  "I  fully  appreciate  the  philanthropic  objects 
which  the  missionary  societies  have  in  view.  .  .  . 
The  missionaries  have  not  sought  for  pecuniary 
gains  at  the  hands  of  our  people.  They  have  not 
been  secret  emissaries  of  diplomatic  schemes.  Their 
labours  have  no  political  significance,  and,  last  but 
not  least,  they  have  not  interfered  with  or  usurped 
the  rights  of  the  territorial  authorities. 
You  have  started  numerous  educational  establish- 
ments which  have  served  as  the  best  means  to 


OPPORTUNITIES   IN    CHINA  233 

enable  our  countrymen  to  acquire  a  fair  knowledge 
of  the  modern  arts  and  sciences  of  the  West.  As 
for  the  material  part  of  our  constitution,  your  soci- 
eties have  started  hospitals  and  dispensaries  to  save 
not  only  the  souls  but  also  the  bodies  of  our  coun- 
trymen. I  have  also  to  add  that  in  times  of  fam- 
ine in  some  of  the  Provinces  you  have  done  your 
best  to  the  greatest  number  of  sufferers  to  keep  their 
bodies  and  souls  together." 

At  the  dinner  given  in  New  York  (February  2, 
1906)  to  the  Imperial  Commissioners  already  men- 
tioned, H.  E.  Tuan  Fang  observed,  in  replying 
to  the  extended  address  of  Dr.  Arthur  J.  Brown, 
among  other  things :  "  We  take  pleasure  this  even- 
ing in  bearing  testimony  to  the  part  taken  by  the 
American  missionaries  in  promoting  the  progress  of 
the  Chinese  people.  They  have  borne  the  light  of 
Western  civilisation  into  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  Empire.  They  have  rendered  inestimable  serv- 
ice to  China  by  the  laborious  task  of  translating 
into  the  Chinese  language  religious  and  scientific 
works  of  the  West.  They  help  us  to  bring  happi- 
ness and  comfort  to  the  poor  and  the  suffering,  by 
the  establishment  of  hospitals  and  schools.  The 
awakening  of  China,  which  now  seems  to  be  at  hand, 
may  be  traced  in  no  small  measure  to  the  work  of 
the  missionary.  For  this  service  you  will  find  China 
not  ungrateful." 

It  is  a  matter  of  not  a  little  psychological  inter- 
est to  see  a  sturdy  old  Confucianist,  diplomat,  and 


234     CHINA   AND   AMERICA   TO-DAY 

man  of  the  world,  like  Li  Hung-chang,  and  a  wide- 
awake Manchu  of  the  new  era,  like  Tuan  Fang, 
certify  to  the  hard-headed  business  men  of  New 
York,  the  moral,  the  social,  and  the  economic  benefit 
of  missionary  work  in  China;  especially  as  many 
of  those  who  perhaps  read  the  report  of  the 
speeches  in  the  next  morning's  paper  might  not  im- 
probably have  been  ready  off-hand  to  express  their 
matured  conviction  (i)  that  missionaries  in  China 
have  accomplished  nothing  to  speak  of,  and  (2)  that 
in  doing  so  they  incidentally  brought  on  the  Boxer 
uprising.  "  The  sociological  importance  to  China," 
says  Dr.  Sydney  Gulick,  "  of  free  and  pure  Christian 
propaganda  is  completely  ignored  by  the  average 
student  of  Oriental  affairs.  But,  beyond  dispute  it 
is,  that  no  more  potent  though  silent  influence  is 
exerted  in  that  land  for  the  removal  of  race-misun- 
derstandings and  prejudices,  and  for  the  upbuilding 
of  the  era  of  good-will  between  the  white  man  and 
the  yellow  man,  than  are  exerted  by  Protestant  mis- 
sions." "  It  is  not  improbable,"  remarks  Benjamin 
Kidd,  "  that  to  the  future  observer,  one  of  the  most 
curious  features  of  our  time  will  appear  to  be  the 
prevailing  unconsciousness  of  the  real  nature  of  the 
issues  in  the  midst  of  which  we  are  living."  And 
in  this  connection  many  readers  will  recall  (as 
does  Dr.  A.  J.  Brown,  from  whose  "  New  Forces 
in  Old  China"  the  quotation  is  taken)  the  mem- 
orable words  of  the  historian  Lecky :  "  No  more 
did  the  statesmen  and  the  philosophers  of  Rome  un- 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  235 

derstand  the  character  and  issues  of  that  greatest 
moverrient  of  all  history,  of  which  their  literature 
takes  so  little  notice.  That  the  greatest  religious 
change  in  the  history  of  mankind  should  have  taken 
place  under  the  eyes  of  a  brilliant  galaxy  of  philoso- 
phers and  historians  who  were  profoundly  conscious 
of  decomposition  around  them ;  that  all  these  writers 
should  have  utterly  failed  to  predict  the  issue  of 
the  movement  they  were  then  observing;  and  that 
during  the  space  of  three  centuries  they  should  have 
treated  as  contemptible  an  agency  which  all  men 
must  now  admit  to  have  been,  for  good  or  evil, 
the  most  powerful  moral  lever  that  has  ever  been 
applied  to  the  affairs  of  men,  are  facts  well  worthy 
of  meditation  in  every  period  of  religious  transi- 
tion." The  fact  that  some  of  our  ablest  American 
statesmen  and  men  of  affairs,  like  the  late  ex-Pres- 
ident Hayes,  ex-President  Cleveland,  the  late  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  the  late  Secretary  John  Hay,  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt,  and  many  more,  gave  their  open 
and  hearty  support  to  the  work  of  foreign  missions 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  recognise  in  them  a 
sociological  force  which  is  unobtrusively  but  irre- 
sistibly working  toward  the  introduction  of  a  Chris- 
tian climate  all  over  the  earth.^  From  this  point 
of  view  the  enterprise  of  Christian  missions — often 
considered  as  an  amiable  fad — ^becomes  of  the  high- 
est national  and  international  importance. 

8 See  on  this  subject  Dr.  James  S.  Dennis's  "Christian 
Missions  and  Social  Progress,"  especially  volume  iii,  in 
extenso. 


236     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY. 

To  quote  the  temperate  language  of  Mr.  F.  T. 
Gates,  Mr.  Rockefeller's  secretary,  in  urging  him 
to  give  generously  to  foreign  missions :  "  The  sub- 
ject of  foreign  missions  should  command  the  inter- 
est of  patriots  and  philanthropists,  of  men  of  all 
creeds  and  of  no  creed,  of  men  of  commerce,  of 
manufactures,  of  finance,  of  the  bankers,  importers 
and  exporters  of  our  country,  and  of  all  who  have 
the  well-being  of  their  own  country  at  heart.  In 
the  long  run,  it  will  be  found,  I  think,  that  the 
effect  of  the  missionary  enterprise  of  English-speak- 
ing peoples  will  be  to  bring  them  the  peaceful  con- 
quest of  the  world — not  political  dominion,  but  do- 
minion in  commerce  and  manufactures,  in  literature, 
science,  philosophy,  art,  refinement,  morals,  relig- 
ion, and  in  future  generations  will  bring  back  return- 
ing tribute  in  all  these  departments  of  life  and  prog- 
ress quite  beyond  present  estimation.  Forgive  me 
if  I  am  in  earnest  in  the  matter.  I  have  been  brood- 
ing over  this  subject  for  years.  These  views  as  to 
the  importance  of  missions  spring  from  no  sudden 
enthusiasm,  but  represent  deliberate  conviction, 
which  has  stood  the  test  of  every  mood  and  of  all 
my  study,  reading,  reflection,  and  intercourse  with 
men  for  a  long  time."  "  Such  then,"  comments 
"  The  Outlook,"  "  is  in  brief  the  view  of  mission- 
ary work  held  to-day  by  intelligent  and  well- 
informed  men.  Christian  missions  are  seen  to-day 
to  be  the  most  effective  instruments  for  mediating 
between  and  bringing  together  fragments  of  the 
human  race  long  isolated,  radically  different,  and 


OPPORTUNITIES    IN    CHINA  237 

too  often  bitterly  antagonistic.  They  are  in  a 
unique  way  humanity's  clearing-house  of  ideas  and 
ideals,  of  motives  and  movements."  ^  To  a  similar 
purpose,  although  from  a  different  point  of  view, 
was  the  address  of  the  Hon.  Wm.  J.  Bryan  in  Lon- 
don, July  4,  1905,  after  a  wide  tour  of  Oriental 
lands,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said :  "  And  now 
we  come  to  the  most  important  need  of  the  Orient — 
a  conception  of  life  which  recognises  individual  re- 
sponsibility to  God,  teaches  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
and  measures  greatness  by  the  service  rendered. 
The  first  establishes  a  rational  relation  between  the 
creature  and  his  Creator,  the  second  lays  the  foun- 
dation for  justice  between  man  and  his  fellows,  and 
the  third  furnishes  an  ambition  large  enough  to  fill 
each  life  with  noble  effort."  "  We  do  not  remem- 
ber," observes  the  journal  just  quoted  (perhaps 
more  widely  influential  in  America  than  any  other), 
"  ever  to  have  seen  a  better  definition  of  the  function 
of  Christian  missions  than  this.  To  inspire  men  with 
a  sense  of  their  responsibility  to  God  that  they  may 
be  made  wise  and  strong  to  fulfill  their  obligations  to 
their  fellowmen  by  the  highest  service  of  which  they 
are  capable,  is  not  a  bad  summary  of  the  duties  of 
the  Christian  ministry  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  nation  which  is  animated  alike  in  domestic  and 
foreign  policy  by  this  spirit  is  a  Christian  nation, 
though  it  may  have  neither  a  national  creed  nor  a 
national  church."  ^^ 

»  "  The  Outlook,"  September  9,  I90S. 
10 "The  Outlook,"  July  16,  1906. 


238     CHINA   AND   AMERICA    TO-DAY 

Speaking  of  the  flood  of  new  books  upon  Ori- 
ental questions,  the  Hon.  John  W.  Foster,  in  a  re- 
cent magazine  article,  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that 
"  probably  in  no  previous  period  of  the  history  of 
the  human  race  has  there  been  awakened  such  con- 
centrated attention  to  one  portion  of  the  earth  and 
its  inhabitants." 

It  is  important  to  take  long  views  and  wide.  We 
have  been  "  long  isolated  "  from  the  Oriental  peo- 
ples, we  are  indeed  "  radically  different,"  but  we 
must  on  no  account  allow  ourselves  to  drift  into 
becoming  "  bitterly  antagonistic."  The  qualities 
which  the  Chinese  have  developed  most  successfully, 
and  in  which  they  are  strongest,  are  those  which  the 
world  most  needs,  and  for  which  in  the  new  era 
upon  which  we  are  entering  there  will  be  the  widest 
scope,  and  for  which  also  there  is  sure  to  be  the 
richest  and  most  permanent  reward.  Those  who 
are  engaged  in  trying  to  comprehend  these  peoples 
and  to  make  them  comprehensible  to  others,  are 
the  intermediaries  and  the  interpreters  for  the  East 
and  the  West,  and  there  are  and  can  be  no  others. 

America  and  China!  what  are  to  be  their  future 
relations? — a  matter  possibly  of  quite  as  much  im- 
portance to  us  as  to  China,  for  the  Chinese  have 
been  fixtures  where  they  are  for  four  millenniums, 
and  should  our  aged  planet  hold  out  as  much  longer, 
whatever  other  regions  they  may  occupy,  it  is  as 
certain  as  any  future  event  can  well  be  that  the 
Chinese  will  then  be  where  they  are  now.    We,  too, 


OPPORTUNITIES   IN    CHINA  239 

though  in  possession  of  our  own  continent  less  than 
a  tenth  as  long  as  the  Chinese,  are  confident  that  we 
hold  a  life-lease.  Would  it  not  be  to  our  advan- 
tage if  American  push  were  to  be  reinforced  by 
Chinese  patience,  American  versatility  by  Chinese 
concentration,  American  energy  by  Chinese  endur- 
ance? 

Great  as  the  changes  appear  in  comparison  with 
the  past,  the  transformation  of  China  has  as  yet 
scarcely  begun,  and  will  go  on  in  a  more  or  less 
accelerating  ratio  for  long  years  to  come.  In  it 
all,  the  moral  and  not  the  material  element  must  be 
put  first.  This  mighty  renovation  will  mean  much 
to  all  Western  lands,  but  it  may  mean  most  to 
America. 

If  we  are  wise,  shall  we  not  face  all  our  duties 
and  opportunities  with  earnest  eagerness, — without 
prejudice,  with  courage,  and  with  hope  toward  the 
setting  sun, — with  the  motto:  "AMERICA  AS- 
SISTS THE  EAST? 


THE  END 


INDEX 


Abraham  Sheikh,  and  his  collateral   (present  day)  kins- 
man in  Syria,  i6. 
Absolute  monarchy,  China  far  from  being  an,  6i. 

exclusion  of  Chinese  enacted,  i6i. 

Absorption  (stealthy)  of  Chinese  territory  checked,  86. 
Adaptation,  Chinese  talent  for,  70. 

Africa,  a  New,  110. 

Age-long  training  of  Chinese,  74. 

debt  of  Japan  to  China,  210. 

Agnostics,  Chinese,  54. 

Agricultural  reforms  and  arboricultural  development,  127. 

Alaska,  importance  of  the  United  States  purchase  of,  21. 

Allen,  Dr.  Young  J.,  229. 

Alexander  the  Great,  conquests  of  give  impulse  to  over- 
land trade  with  China,  81. 

Altruistic  labour  of  Americans  in  China,  225. 

America,  the  New,  19;  attitude  of  towards  the  Chinese, 
161;  deprecatory  terms  of,  applied  to  foreign  peoples, 
148;  exclusion  of  Chinese  from,  161. 

America's  advantages  and  disadvantages  in  China,  146; 
opportunities  and  responsibilities  in  China,  195; 
Oriental  trade,  a  menace  to,  167;  treaties  with 
China,  honourable  character  of,  151;  treatment  of 
the  black  man  and  the  red,  147,  148;  flag,  disappear- 
ance of  from  Chinese  waters,  188;  important 
achievements  of,  207. 

American  Asiatic  Association,  201;  annual  dinner  of,  201; 
citizens  at  mercy  of  Chinese  laws  and  rulers,  93; 
courts,  Chinese  testimony  rejected  in,  164;  official 
shuffling  of  responsibility,  176;  violence  towards 
Chinese  (in  the  U.  S.),  164;  ships  in  Canton  river, 
belligerent  operations  of,  88;  manufacturing  su- 
premacy of,  197. 

Americans  (in  Bismarck's  phrase)  said  to  have  "a  vast 
and  varied  ignorance"  of  anything  and  everything 
at  a  distance,  109. 

Amherst,  Lord,  English  ambassador  at  Canton,  89. 

Anglo-Saxon,  the  rectilinearity  of  his  speech,  68. 

of  Asia,  the  Chinese,  70. 

241 


242  INDEX 

Anti-foreign  wave  in  China  to-day  a  manifestation  of 
patriotism,  117. 

Arab,  the,  and  Arabia,  16. 

Army  and  Navy  of  China  characterised,  115;  later  im- 
provements in,  116. 

Armies  of  Chinese,  victorious,  46. 

Arbitration,  sentiment  in  favour  of,  207. 

Arrow  war,  the,  104. 

Asia,  the  land  of  origins,  13;  a  realm  of  antiquities,  13. 

Asiatic  characteristics,  15. ,   ^ 

Athletics  and  physical  training  developing,  133. 

Attila,  of  the  Huns,  the  scourge  of  Europe,  34. 

Attitude  of  America  towards  the  Chinese,  161. 

Austin's,  Hon.  O.  P.,  "The  Commercial  Prize  of  the 
Orient "  quoted,  81,  202, 

Awakening  of  China,  profound  significance  of,  197. 

Awkward  age,  Chinese  have  Ino,  68. 

"  Axiomatic  China,"  58. 

Bacillus  Anti-Americanus,  the,  172. 

"  Backshish  hunters,"  Mohammedam  Arabs  now  merely, 

49. 

Bamboo  tablets,  the  earliest  Chinese  books,  36 

Barbarian,  Western,  his  footing  in  China,  91. 

Belligerent  operations  of  British  and  American  ships  in 
Canton  river,  88. 

Bibliography,  Annals  of  Chinese,  43,  44. 

Bibliothecal  catastrophes,  37. 

Board  of  Education  and  its  examinations,  142;  examples 
of  the  questions  asked  and  the  subjects  sought  to 
be  expounded  by,  143;  themes  set  for  essays,  143. 

Boycott,  the,  Chinese  merchants  wield  the,  75,  206;  anti- 
American,  173. 

Boxer  massacre,  the,  78;  effect  of  on  China,  171. 

Brass  Dish,  the,  and  the  Iron  Brush,  80. 

Bridgman,  Dr.  E.  C,  earliest  missionary  to  China,  226. 

Brine  and  petroleum  wells,  71. 

Btinkley,  Capt.  F.,  on  China  and  Japan,  48,  80,  84,  86,  99. 

Britain,  at  opening  of  twentieth  century,  finds  large  part 
of  the  world  in  a  transitional  state,  109;  her  develop- 
ment in  South  Africa,  India,  and  Egypt,  no;  her 
early  dealings  with  China  and  the  ensuing  compli- 
cations, 94;  her  interest  in  the  opium  traffic,  the 
"  lubricant "  for  a  tirpe  in  the  national  trade,  98. 

Brown,  Dr.  Arthur  J.,  his  "  New  Forces  in  Old  China," 
168,  171,  200,  233,  234. 

• Dr.  S.  R.,  pioneer  Chinese  teacher,  231. 

Bryan,  Hon.  Wm.  J.,  address  of  in  London,  237. 


INDEX  243 

Buddhism,  great  headway  of  in  Chiaa,  39,  81. 

Taoism,  and  the  arts,  44. 

Bunsen,  Baron,  his  work  in  Egypt,  50. 
Bureau  of  Charities,  Chinese,  125. 

Burlingame,  Anson,  U.  S.  minister  to  China,  appointed 
envoy  of  Chinese  government  to  the  Treaty  Powers, 
15s;  the  emigration  agreement  in  the  treaty  of  1868, 
156;  death  of  at  St.  Petersburg,  155. 

Canals  and  waterways,  42. 

Canton,  English  complaint  of  Hoppo's  exactions  at,  92. 

Carnegie's  "  Triumphant  Democracy,"  flatters  the  na- 
tional vanity,  192. 

Cathay,  Marco  Polo's  visit  to,  43;  "A  Cycle  of  Cathay" 
quoted,   189. 

Chamber  of  Commerce,  at  Canton,  the  hew,  128. 

Chang  Chih  Tung,  governor-general,  59;  on  the  opium 
trade,  in  his  book  "  China's  Only  Hope,"  where  he 
urges  to  "  Cast  out  the  Poison,"  100;  insuperable 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  suppressing  the  trade,  loi. 

Changes  in  intercommunication  and  transportation  in 
China  far-reaching,  123. 

Cheerful  industry  of  the  Chinese  people^  76. 

Ch'en  dynasty  (A.  D.  557-589),  35- 

Ch'i  dynasty  (A.  D.  479-502),  35. 

Ch'ien  Lung,  emperor  and  man-of-letters,  45. 

Chin  (Western)  dynasty  (A.  D.  265-317),  35. 

(Eastern)  dynasty  (A.  D.  317-420),  35. 

Ch'in  dynasty  (B.  C.  255-206),  31. 

Ch'in  Shih  Huang,  first  emperor  and  unifier  of  China,  33; 
a  reformer,  33;  dynasty  of,  33;  destroys  existing 
literature,  32;  buries  alive  his  scholar  critics,  33. 

China,  old,  28;  legendary,  31;  origin  of  the  name,  31,  32; 
early  socialistic  statesmen  of,  41;  nationalisation  of 
commerce  in,  41;  sages  or  holy  men  of,  50-52;  his- 
tory of  and  its  divisions  into  periods,  33;  its  early 
feudal  states,  31;  building  and  repair  of  the  great 
wall  of  (1500  miles  in  length),  a  gigantic  under- 
taking, 32;  warfare  of,  with  the  Tartars  of  the  North, 
34;  Manchu  Tartars  seize  the  throne,  34;  historic 
parallel  between  barbarian  inundation  of  Rome  and 
the  invasion  of  China  by  her  barbarian  enemies. 
34;  dynasties  of,  chronologically  arranged,  35;  Na- 
poleon of,  32;  consolidation  .of  under  Emperor 
Huang,  32;  formative  period  of  polity  and  consti- 
tution, 37;  great  work  on  the  topography  of,  45; 
victorious  armies  of,  46;  family  genealogies  in,  58; 
honeycombed  with  secret  societies,  62;  immeasura- 


244  INDEX 

ble  greatness  of,  58;  inherent  democracy  of,  63; 
lack  of  progress,  64;  hard  work  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  human  existence  in,  65;  early  manufacture 
of  paper  in,  70;  silk-weaving  in,  70;  farming  in,  70; 
merchant  class  in,  66;  land  of  ploughed  in  autumn, 
70;  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  the  first  to  reach, 
43;  foot-binding  in,  44  and  134;  invention  of  mari- 
ner's compass,  70;  systern  of  government  in,  74; 
trade  guilds  in,  75;  invention  of  printing  art  in,  39, 
70;  survival  of  the  fittest  in,  77;  overland  trade  with, 
81;  opening  of  English  commerce  with,  87;  treaty 
of  with  Russia,  86;  lawless  raids  of  Dutch  on  coasts 
of,  84;  Western  barbarians,  footing  in  soil  of,  91; 
early  lack  of  consuls  in  European  intercourse  with, 
94;  opium  trade  of  a  greater  evil  than  war,  famine 
and  pestilence,  100;  nineteenth  century  foreigners  in, 
autocratic,  dictatorial,  and  openly  contemptuous  of 
rights  of  the  people,  loi;  railways  in  operation  in, 
and  profits  of,  1 19-122;  anti-foreign  wave  a  manifes- 
tation of  patriotism  in,  117;  electric  lighting  now 
prevalent  m,  118;  Japan  contrasted  with,  114;  army 
and  navy  of  characterised  and  later  improvements 
in  noted,  115,  116;  United  States  treaties  with,  151, 
155,  174;  poppy  plant  now  discouraged  in,  135;  m- 
tercommunication  and  transportation  in  far-reach- 
ing, 123;  Japanisation  of,  129;  drastic  decrees  against 
present  use  of  opium,  135;  public  sentiment  now 
antagonistic  to  its  use,  135;  journalism  and  literature 
in,  136,  138;  compulsory  education  now  urged,  142; 
patronising  character  of  President  Tyler's  state 
paper  to  Emperor  of,  152;  women  and  her  subjec- 
tions in,  208;  Protestant  missionaries  and  their  work 
in,  ids;  opening  of  at  the  point  of  the  lancet,  226; 
disunity  the  curse  of,  36;  reverence  for  the  past  of, 
57;  Brown's  "  New  Forces  in  Old  China,"  168,  171, 
200;  China  on  verge  of  revolution,  214;  proposal  to 
return  unexpended  portion  of  indemnity  money, 
220;  good  work  of  Protestant  missions  in,  105,  22^; 
acknowledgment  of  the  moral,  social,  and  economic 
benefit  of  missionary  work  in,  233. 

Chinatown,  evils  of  in  many  large  American  cities,  159. 

Chinese  classics,  Legge's,  47. 

literature,  Dr.  Wylie's  notes  on,  37. 

labour,  its  effect  on  the  demand  for  white  labour, 

158;  immigration  of  to  the  Pacific  coast,  157. 

people,  great  qualities  of,  50. 

the,  a  great  race,  47. 

■ waters,  anomalous  condition  of,  at  the  close  of  eight- 
eenth century  90. 


INDEX  245 

Chinese  Repository,  the,  226. 

Chinese,  real  founder  of  empire,  32;  dynasties,  35;  early 
literature  destroyed,  32;  Muse  of  History,  33;  polity 
and  institutions  of,  formative  period  of  the,  37;  a 
great  race,  47;  agnostics,  54;  great  qualities  of  the 
people,  so;  race  traits  of,  57,  75-78;  historic  instinct 
of  the,  58;  symbols  of  thought  of,  59;  Lord  Elgin's 
attitude  towards,  102;  Sir  Henry  Parkes'  dealings 
with  the,  102;  the  Chinese  in  Japan,  211;  thousands 
of  in  other  foreign  countries,  215;  punctiliously 
polite,  69;  no  right  of  legislation,  64;  no  right  of 
self-taxation,  64;  heat-handedness  of,  72;  con- 
formity to  conditions  of  the,  70;  physical  vitality 
of,  74;  system  of  government  among,  61,  74;  mas- 
sacre of  in  Philippine  Islands,  83;  cheerful  industry 
of  the,  76;  officials  of  and  their  nine  ranks,  60; 
monarchical  form  of  government,  61;  right  of  re- 
bellion, 64;  steady,  sober,  and  intelligent  as  labour- 
ers, 67;  Herbal  of,  45;  poetry,  golden  age  of,  39; 
great  lexicon  of  language,  45;  interdict  of  in  Dutch- 
Indian  colonies,  86;  waters,  international  breaches 
of  decorum  in,  88;  anomalous  conditions  prevailing 
in  waters  of  at  close  of  eighteenth  century,  90;  com- 
mercial instincts  of,  90;  ablest  monarchs  of,  90; 
superiority  of  Manchus  of,  91;  American  citizens 
at  mercy  of  laws  and  rulers,  93;  invaluable  in  do- 
mestic service,  174;  indispensable  in  salmon-can- 
ning and  fruit-raising,  174;  postal  system,  124; 
immigration  of  to  America  and  the  latter's  enact- 
ments against  it,  157,  158;  San  Francisco's  hostility 
to,  166;  American  violence  toward,  164;  rejection 
of  testimony  of  in  American  courts,  164,  165;  at- 
titude of  the  United  States  toward  "  a  menace  to 
America's  Oriental  trade,"  167;  5000  Chinese  study- 
ing in  Japan,  215;  Americans  the  natural  friends  of 
the  Chinese,  216;  tuition  of  free  in  all  school  grades, 
132;  dearth  of  teachers,  133;  girl  students  a  factor 
of  prime  import,  133. 

commercial  instinct  of,  90. 

a  punctiliously  polite  people,  78. 

language,  lexicon  of,  45. 

in  Japan,  the,  215. 

officials,  and  their  nine  ranks,  60. 

foreign  office  (the  Tsung  Li  Yamen),  64. 

Ching  dynasty,  Manchu  (A.  D.  1644 — ),  35. 

Chou  dynasty,  the  (B.  C.  1122-255),  35;  its  great  sages,  36. 
Christians,  Nestorian,  a  patron  of  the,  38. 
Chu  Hsi,  statesman  of  Sung  dynasty,  40;  influence  of,  40. 
Classics,  the,  interpretations  of,  40,  42. 


246  INDEX 

Code  of  social  order,  6l. 

"  Co-hong,"  the  famous  Chinese  intermediary,  92. 
Colquhoun's  "  Mastery  of  the  Pacific,"  200. 
Columbus,  Christopher,  his  discovery  of  America,  82. 
Commerce,  early  Chinese,  80;  overland  trade  with  China, 

81;  English  trade  with  China  opened,  87;  of  Empire, 

nationalisation  of,  41. 
Commercial   press   in   China    (under  Japanese   influeace), 

139. 
"  Commercial  Prize  of  the  Orient,"  The,  quoted,  202. 
Community,  the  supreme  in  Oriental  civilisation,  16. 
Compulsory  education  urged,  142. 
Conceit,  ineffable,  of  Chinese,  152. 
Conformity  to  conditions  of  Chinese,  JZ- 
Confucius    (B,   C.  SSi-478),  51,  54,  55,  61;  Memorabilia 

of,  59- 
Confucian  system  of  thought,  53,  54,  55. 
Confucian  temple  in  Peking,  36. 
Confucianism,  its  many  great  excellences,  55;  its  worship 

of  ancestors,  54. 
Constitutional  government,  study  of  encouraged  by  two 

recent    Imperial    Commissioners,    140;    reports    on 

postponed,   141. 
Consuls,    early    lack    of    in    European    intercourse    with 

China,  94. 
Contrivance  for  every  emergency.  A,  a  Chinese  gift,  JZ- 
Coolies,  Chinese,  American  attitude  to  traffic  in,  189. 
Courtesy,  Oriental  talent  for,  69;  innate  in  many  Chinese, 

69-  .  ,      . 

Culbertson,    Rev.    M.    S..    translator    of    the    Bible    mto 

Chinese,  227. 
Custom,  Old-time,  veneration  for  in  China,  58,  59. 
"  Cycle  of  Cathay,"  A,  quoted,  189. 

Darroch,  John,  of  Shanghai,  on  New  Literature  in  China, 

138,   139- 
"  David  Harum,"  and  its  variant  on  the  Golden  Rule,  106. 
Democracy,  Inherent,  of  China,  63. 
Dennis,  Dr.  James  S.,  his  "  Christian  Missions "  quoted, 

235- 
Disunity,  the  ruin  of  Greece  and  the  curse  of  China,  36. 
"  Divine  Discontent "  of  the  Chinese,  yj. 
Dutch,  the,  advent  of  in  China  and  attack  Portuguese  and 

Spaniards,  84;  international  freebooters,  84;  lawless 

raids  of  on  China's  coasts,  84. 

Indian  Colonies,  interdict  of  Chinese  in,  86. 

Dyaasties,   the   Chinese,   35;    the   seven   most   interesting 

to  Occidentals,  36;  the  T'ang  dynasty,  35. 


INDEX  247 

East  India  Company  and  the  Opium  trade,  the,  95. 
Educational    Commission    to     China,    President    James's 
memo  on,  213,  218. 

Institutions    in    China,    129,    130;    advance    great    in 

Province  of  Chihli,  129;  institutions  in  operation 
under  Governor-General,  129,  130;  number  of  stu- 
dents,  130;   scope  of  curriculum,  131. 

Museum,  Chinese,  130. 

Egyptians,  Old,  and  old  Chinese  compared,  49. 
Electric  lighting  prevalent  now  in  China,   118. 
Elgin,  Lord,  his  attitude  towards  the  Chinese,  loi,  102. 
Embassies    to    the    capital    of    tributary    Kingdoms    and 

States,   38. 
Engineers,   Chinese  lack  of   competent,   123. 
English  antagonised  by  the   Portuguese  on  first  coming 

to  China,  86;  her  commerce  with  China  opened,  87, 
Examination,  Chinese  old-style,  abandoned,  128.  ^ 
Exclusion  Act,  the,  applied  to  the  Chinese  and  its  eflfect 

on   them,   206. 

Family  genealogies  in   China,  58. 

Far  East,  the,  and  the  New  China,  108. 

Farming  in   China,  66. 

Fatalism,  land  where  it  reigns,  14. 

Fatalists,  Chinese  unconscious,  76. 

Filial  piety,   Chinese,  54,   171. 

Fixity  of  China,  unalterable,  40. 

Five  Constant  Virtues,  the,  53. 

Five  Rulers,  the  great  Chinese,  28. 

Florida,  an  early  Spanish  colony,  20. 

Foreign  communities  in  China  a  law  unto  themselves,  92. 

Foreign  office,  Chinese  (Tsung  Li  Yamen),  the,  64. 

Foreign  treaty,  first  between  China  and  Russia,  86. 

Foreigners  in  China,  many  of  them  autocratic,  dictatorial, 
and  openly  contemptuous  of  Chinese  rights,  loi. 

Foreigners  in  China,  in  19th  century,  autocratic,  dicta- 
torial, and  openly  contemptuous  of  the  rights  of 
the    Chinese,    loi. 

Foster,  Hon.  John  W.,  quoted,  238. 

Foster's  "American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient,"  quoted, 
151,  221. 

Foot-binding  in   China,  44,   134. 

Formative  period  of  Chinese  polity  and  institutiohs,  37. 

Four  Knowings,  Hall  of  the,  56. 

Gambling  atid  opium-smoking,  common  vices  in  ChiHa,  65. 
Gamewell,  Rev.  F.  D.,  his  labours  and  work  duriag  siege 
of  Pekin,  231. 


248  INDEX 

Gates,  F,  T.  (Mr.  Rockefeller's  secretary),  quoted,  236. 

Genealogies,  Chinese  family,  58. 

Genghis  Khan,  the  world-renowned  Tartar,  42. 

Giles,  Prof.,  his  dictum  pn   K'ang  Hsi,  45. 

Girl  students  a  factor  of  prime  importance,  133;  schools 

for  girls  and  women,  133. 
Goodrich,   Dr.    Chauncey,   theological   teacher  and   hym- 

nologist,  228. 
Great  Wall,  the,  of  China,  32. 
"  Guarding  a  Great  City,"  McAdoo's,  160. 
Gulick,  Dr.   Sydney   L.,  "The  White  Peril"  quoted,  15, 

201,  234. 
Gunpowder,  invention  of  attributed  to  the  Chinese,  70. 
Gurkhas,  fiery,  forced  into  submission,  46. 

Hall  of  the  Four  Knowings,  the,  56. 

Han,  the,  first  national  Chmese  dynasty,  34,  36,  37. 

Han  Wen-Kung,  the  philosopher  statesman,  39. 

Hanlin   Academy,  burning  of,  44. 

Happer,  Dr.  A.  P.,  of  the  Canton  Christian  College,  226. 

Hard  work,  a  necessary  condition  of  human  existence  in 
China,  65. 

Hart,  Sir  Robert,  on  Chinese  qualities,  78,  102,  103. 

Harvard  University's  invitation  to  Chinese  students,  219. 

Hawaiian  Islands,  key  and  cross  roads  of  the  Pacific,  25. 

important  strategic  base,  24. 

Hawks,  Rev,  F.  L.,  "a  Sketch  of  Chinese  History,"  29.^ 

Hayes,  Dr.  Watson  M.,  of  American  Presbyterian  Mis- 
sion, _  230. 

Herbal,  Chinese,  45. 

Historic  instinct  of  Chinese,  58. 

Holcombe's  "  Real  Chinese  Question,"  102. 

Holy  men,  or  Chinese  sages,  50-52. 

Hongkong,  Britain's  acquirement  of,  104. 

Honolulu,  unique  situation  of,  25,  26. 

"Hoppo"  of  Canton,  English  complaint  against  the  ex- 
actions of  and  its  results,  92. 

Huns,  the,  under  Attila,  the  scourge  of  Europe,  34. 

Immigration,  Chinese,  and  American  enactments  against 

it,  158,  161. 

of  Chinese  to  the  Pacific  Coast  of  the  U.  S.,  I57- 

Imperial  Library,  the,  43. 

Income  tax  imposed   for  construction   of  Public  Works 

in  China,  41. 
Indemnities,  unexpended,  utilising  or  returning  them,  220. 
Industrial  institutes  and  exhibits  in  chief  Chinese  cities, 

125,   126. 
Inland  ports,  opening  of  in  China,  124. 


INDEX  249 

Intellectual  toil,  Chinese  have  a  phenomenal  talent  for, 

66. 
Intercommunication  and  transportation  in   China,   123. 
International  breaches  of  decorum  in  Chinese  waters,  88 

usages  disregarded  by  Britain  in  China,  97. 

Instruction  of  prisoners  in  Chinese  jails,  125. 
Isthmian  Canal,  the,  26,  198,  203,  205. 

James,  President  (Univ.  of  111.),  on  Educational  Commis- 
sion   to    China,    213,   218. 

Japan,  the  New,  and  the  Japanese,  112;  contrasted  with 
China,  114;  her  war  with  Russia,  116;  her  age-long 
debt  to  China,  210;  Chinese  in,  215;  politeness  of, 
69;  patriotism  of  her  people,  112. 

Japanese  teachers  employed  in  Chinese  provincial  col- 
leges, 128,  129. 

Japanisation  of  China,  129. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  a  President  committed  against  extra- 
constitutional  acts,  19. 

Jews  in  China  now  at  point  of  extinction,  115. 

Journalism,  a  new,  with  widened  thought,  136;  secular 
press  liot  anti-Christian,  137;  fearless  in  its  attack 
of  abuses,  137;  journals  conducted  by  women,  138. 

K'ang  Hsi,  2nd  Emperor  of  Manchu  dynasty,  44;  brilliant 
and  long  reign  of,  44;  great  patron  of  literature,  44. 

and   Chien   Lung,   ablest   Chinese  monarchs,  45,  46. 

Kerr,  Dr.  John  G.,  of  Canton,  225. 

Kidd,  Benjamin,  quoted,  234. 

Knowledge,  Western,  barriers  battered  down,  144. 

Koxinga,  drives  the  Dutch  from  Formosa,  85;  ex-pirate, 

early   English   treaty  with,  87. 
Kublai  Khan,  his  conquests  over  Asia,  42. 

Labourer,  Chinese,  steady,  sober  and  intelligent,  67. 

Lacquer-making,  ivory  and  wood-carving,  Chinese  ex- 
perts in,  70. 

Lake   Mohonk   conferences,   our   admirable,    148. 

Land  in  China  ploughed  in  autumn,  70. 

Learning,  the  new,  in  China,  131. 

Legations  at  Peking,  221,  222. 

Legendary  China  (B.  C.  2500- A.  D.  209),  31,  50. 

Legge,  Dr.  James,  his  Chinese  Classics,  47. 

Lexicon  of  the  Chinese  language,  great,  45. 

Li  Hung-chang,  Marquis,  115,   168,  202,  232,  234. 

Lin,  Commissioner,  his  attempt  to  kill  the  giant  com- 
merce in  opium,  95,  97. 

Liberty,  Statue  of,  Enlightening  the  World,  206. 

Literary  activity  during  Ming  era,  43. 


250  INDEX 

Literature,  Chinese,  successful  patron  of,  45;  the  new  de- 
velopment of,  40,  138;  new  publications,  138;  agency 
of  the  Commercial  Press,  139;  vast  range  of  modern 
publications,  139;  translation  of  Occidental  stand- 
ard works,  140;  early  Chinese,  destroyed  by  Em- 
peror Huang,  32;  repeal  of  the  latter's  edict  against, 
37. 

Little,  Archibald,  his  work  on  "The  Far  East,"  quoted, 

SI- 
Little,  Mrs.  Archibald,  her  efforts  to  abolish  foot-bmding 

of    Chinese    girls,    134. 
Louisiana    Purchase   Exposition,   contempt   for   amenities 

of  internatioHal  intercourse  at,   170. 

Macao,  Portuguese  occupation  of,  83;  deliminated  from 

mainland,  83. 
Macartney,   Lord,  spectacular   English  embassy  of,  89. 
Mahan,  Capt.,  quoted,  23,  24. 

Malacca,  Portuguese  arrival  at,  and  at  Canton,  82. 
Manchu  dynasty,  second  emperor  of,  44. 
Manchus,  superiority  of  to  the  Chinese,  91;  their  heritage 

of  China,  90. 
Mandarins,   obstructive   ex-officio,  64. 
Manila,  brought  near  to  Washington  by  cable,  26. 
Manual  training  schools,  Chinese,  126. 
Manufacturing    of    various    kinds    in    operation   bow    in 

China,   126. 

beginning  now  to  appear,  126. 

Marco  Polo,  his  memorable  visit  to  Cathay,  43. 
Mariner's  compass,  invention  of  in  China,  70. 
Martin,  Rev.  Dr.  W.  A.  P.,  his  "  A  Cycle  of  Cathay,"  189. 
Mateer,  Dr.  C.  W.,  fifty  years'  educational  work  in  China, 

227. 
McAdoo,    Police    Commissioner,   on   American   municipal 

police  problems,  159;  his  work  "  Guarding  a  Great 

City,"  160. 
McCartee,  Dr.  D.  B,,  his  long  work  at  Ningpo  and  Tokio, 

227. 
Meadows,  T.  T.,  on  the  Chinese  and  their  rebellions,  48; 

his  meditations  while  seated  on  the  Great  Pyramid, 

48;   on   fundamental   tenets   of   Confucian  thought, 

52. 
Memorabilia  of  Confucms,  The,  59. 
Memory,  cultivated  in   China  to   an  unexampled  extent, 

74- 

Men  of  Tang,  38. 

Mencius,  the  greatest  of  Chinese  sages,  52;  his  last  rest- 
ing-place, 55- 

Mental  efiEort,  Chinese  high  regard  for,  59. 


INDEX  251 

Merchant  class  in  China,  the,  66. 

Marine,  American,  lack  of,  a   handicap   in  the   Far 

East,   183. 
Mexico,   unwarranted   American   aggression   upon,   20. 
Middle  Ages,  the,   Chinese  still  or  lately  living  in,  75. 
Military   chieftains,   early   Chinese,  31. 
Militia  Enrollment  Act,  Chinese,  41. 
Miner,  Luella,  her  "  Two  Heroes  of  Cathay,"  168. 
Ming  Emperor,  Yung  Le,  43. 
Mings,  their  dynasty  and  era,  43,  87. 
Mirror  of  History,  from  Chou  dynasty  downward,  40. 
Missionaries,  Protestant,  and  their  good  work  in  China, 

los,  223,  224. 

Roman  Catholic,  the  first  to  reach  China,  43. 

Mississippi  River,  right  to  navigate  freely,  19. 
Mohammed,  flight  of,  39. 

Mohammedan  Arabs,  mere  "  backshish  hunters  "  tiow,  49. 

India  powerfully  influenced  by  unrest  of  Egypt,  112. 

Monarchical  form  of  Chinese  government,  61. 

Mongol  rule,  short-lived,  43;   dynasty,  35. 

Monroe  Doctrine,  the,  23. 

Muse  of  History,  the  Chinese,  33. 


Nanking  treaty  of  1842,  the,  loi. 

Napier,  Lord,  speaks  of  a  Chinese  Governor-General  as 
"  a  presumptuous  savage,"  94. 

Napoleon  of  China,  the,  32. 

National  frontage  on  the   Pacific,  American,  204. 

Nationalisation  of  Chinese  commerce,  41. 

Nature,  intellectual  and  moral,  of  the  Chinese  run  in 
cast-iron  moulds,  40. 

Nature,  powers  of,  worshipped  in  China,  54. 

Navigation  of  Chinese  inland  waters  recently  greatly 
extended,  123. 

Navy  and  Army  of  Chinese  characterised,  115;  later  im- 
provements  in,    116. 

Neat-handedness  of  the  Chinese,  72. 

Nerchinsk  treaty  with   Russia,  the,  86. 

Nestorian  Christians,  a  patron  of  in  China,  38. 

Nevius,  Dr.  John  L.,  his  book  cm  "  Methods  of  Mission 
Work,"  227. 

New  America,  The,  19. 

New  Learning,  the,  desire  for  has  reached  China's  in- 
terior, 131. 

"New   York   Independent"   quoted,   185. 

"  New  York  Observer  "  quoted,   193. 

Ningpo,  early  factories  and  trading  establishments  at, 
82. 


252  INDEX 

Occident,  the,  and  the  Orient,  13. 

Occidentals,  the  seven  Chinese  dynasties  most  interest- 
ing to,  30. 

Official   shuffling  of  American  responsibility,   176. 

Officials,  Chinese,  and  their  nine  ranks,  60. 

Old  China,  28. 

Old-time  custom,  Chinese  veneration  for,  58,  59. 

Opening  China  at  the  point  of  the  lancet,  226;  opening 
of  inland  ports   (Chinese),  124, 

Opium,  illicit  sales  of  the  deadly  drug,  99;  greater  evil 
than  war,  famine,  and  pestilence,  100;  opium-smok- 
ing and  gambling,  65;  trade  in,  94,  135;  smuggling 
of,  a  factor  in  bringing  on  war  with  England,  98, 
99;  use  of,  100;  drastic  decree  against,  135;  strong 
Chinese  public  sentiment  now  antagonising  its  use, 

135- 
Opportunities  and  responsibilities  of  America  in  China, 

195. 
Orient,  the,  great  changes  and  progress  in,  18,  202-204. 

a  large   importer  of  cotton  and   cotton   goods,  203. 

Oriental  talent  for  courtesy,  the,  69. 

"  Outlook,"  The,  quoted,  167,  236-238. 

Outrages   against  the   Chinese  in  America,   176. 

Overthrow  of   Russia's  land  and  naval  forces  by  Japan 

(1904-05),  116. 

Pacific,  the,  to  be  the  centre  of  world's  commerce,  wealth 
and  power,  198. 

Panama  Canal,  influence  of  its  positiott,  23,  26,  198;  see 
Isthmian  Canal. 

Pango  Pango,  ceded  in  1872  to  the  United  States,  23. 

Paper,   early   manufacture   of   in    China,   ^T. 

Parker,  Dr.  Peter,  missionary  of  the  American  Board  at 
Canton,   225. 

Parkes,  Sir  Harry,  102;  his  attitude  in  dealings  with  the 
Chinese,   102.  _ 

Patriarchs,  the  earliest  rulers  in  China,  31. 

Patriotism  in  China  manifested  by  the  anti-foreign  wave 
agitation,   117. 

Peking,  the  siege  of,  44. 

Philippine  Islands,  seized  by  the  Spaniards,  83;  acquisi- 
_  tion  of  by  the  United  States,  26. 

Physical  training  now  a  part  of  the  educational  curricu- 
lum in  China,  132. 

vitality   of  the    Chinese   the   wonder   of  the   world, 

74. 
Piano  factory  in  Shanghai,  127. 
Pi  Kan,  killed  to  see  if  his  heart  had  "seven  openingSi** 

57. 


INDEX  253 

Poetry,  Chinese,  the  T'ang  period  the  golden  era  of,  39. 

Poppy  plant,   cultivation   of  now  encouraged,   135. 

Portuguese,  the,  reach  Malacca  and  Canton,  82;  their  fac- 
tories at  Ningpo,  82;  their  expulsion.  83. 

Postal  system  in  China  now  improved  and  extended, 
124;  number  of  offices  and  of  articles  handled,  124. 

Pott,  Rev.  F.  L.  Hawks,  his  "  Sketch  of  Chinese  His- 
tory," 29, 

Primary  schools  in  Chinese  Provinces,  131. 

Printing,  art  of,  invented  in  and  early  resort  to  in  China, 
70. 

Prisoners  in  Chinese  jails,  instruction  of,  125, 

Progress  in  China,  lack  of,  64.      ^ 

Protestant  missionaries  and  their  good  work  in  China, 
105,  223,  224. 

Putnam-Weale's  "  The  Re-Shaping  of  the  Far  East,"  182, 
187. 

Race-traits,  Chinese,  57,  75-78. 

Raids,  lawless,  of  the  Dutch  o«  Chinese  coasts,  84. 

Railways  in  operation  in  China,  119-122;  profits  of,  120; 

breach  of  faith  manifested  by  constructors  on  first 

introduction  of,   118. 
Rebellion,  Chinese  right  of,  64. 
Reciprocal  tariffs,  proposals  for,  177. 
Red-skins,   American   prevalent   contempt  for  the,   148. 
Reid,  Dr.  Gilbert,  his  educational  work  at  Shanghai,  230. 
Reid,    Dr.    Gilbert,    of    American    Presbyterian    Mission, 

230. 
Religions  of  Mankind,  laad  in  which  all  have  originated, 

13. 

"  Re-Shaping  of  the  Far  East,"  The,  quoted,  182,  187. 

Responsibility,  American  official  shuffling  of,  176. 

Reverence,  Chinese,  for  law,  symbols  of,  and  of  govern- 
ment, 61. 

Reverence  for  the  past  in  China,  57. 

for  parents   and   authorities,  55. 

Roosevelt,  President,  his  assertion  that  "  Good  manners 
should  be  an  international,  not  less  than  an  indi- 
vidual, attribute,"  177,  178. 

Russia  and  her  war  with  Japan,  116. 

Russo-Japanese  War,  reflex  effect  of  the  great,  110. 

Sages  or  Holy  Men  of  China,  50-52. 
Sakyamuni  (or  Saddartha),  honour  paid  to,  39. 
Salmon-canning  and  fruit-raising,  Chinese  useful  in,  174. 
San   Francisco's  hostility  to   Chinese   immigration,   159. 
Scholar,  Chinese,  fatiguing  intellectual  labour  of,  67. 


254  INDEX 

Scholars,   the   critics   of   Emperor    Huaag's   acts,   buried 

alive,  32,  33. 
Scholarship,  Chinese,  CHCotiraged,  134. 
Schools   for  women  and  girls  in  China,  development  of, 

133. 
Secret   societies,   Chma    honeycombed   with,   62. 
Seward,  Wm.  H.,  most  prescient  American  statesman,  21. 
Sheffield,  Dr.  D.  Z.,  President  of  College  at  T'ung  Chou, 

228. 
Shen  Tsung  era,  41. 

Shuffling  (American  official)   of  responsibility,  176. 
Silk,  the  spinning  and  weaving  of,  in  China,  70. 
Socialistic   statesmen   of   China,   early,  41. 
Spanish  seizure  of  the  Philippines,  the,  83;  indiscriminate 

massacre  of  Chinese  on,  83. 
Speer's  "  The  Oldest  and  the  Newest  Empire,"   166,  209. 
Spoils   system   in   the   United   States   in   appointments   of 

foreign    ministers    and    consuls,    181,    182. 
Squeeze,  the,  Chinese  officials  resort  to,  180. 
Ssu-Ma  Kuang,  his  "  Mirror  of  History,"  40. 
State  advances  for  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  41. 
Stead,  Alfred,  his  work  on  "  Great  Japan,"  114. 
Stone  drums,  ten,  in  Confucian  temple,  Peking,  36. 
Strong,    Dr.   Josiah,   quoted,   25;    his   "  Expansion   under 

New  World  Conditions,"  196. 
Survival  of  the  fittest  in  China,  77. 
Symbols  of  thought,   Chinese,  59. 
System  of  government,  Chinese,  74. 

Tablets,   bamboo,    the    earliest    Chinese    books,   36. 
T'ai  Tsung,  second  T'ang  Emperor,  38. 
Talent,  worship  of,  in  China,  78. 
T'ang,   men   of,   38. 

T'ang,  the,  golden  age  of  Chinese  poetry,  39. 
Taotai  Wang  Kai-Ka,  on  "  A  Menace  to  America's  Ori- 
ental Trade,"   167. 
Tariflfs,  reciprocal,  Oscar  Straus's  proposals  of,  177. 
Tartar  cue,  adoption  of,  44,  45. 
Tartars  of  the  North,  China's  warfare  with,  34. 

,  Manchu,  seize  the  Chinese  throne,  34. 

Teachers,   dearth   of,  and   much   of   teaching   inadequate, 

133- 
Telegraph  and  telephone  systems  in  China,  118. 
Tenney,  Dr.  C.  D.,  his  education  of  Chinese  youth,  230. 
Text-books  and  what  they  inculcate,  132. 
Themes  set  for  essays  by  Chinese  Board  of  Education, 

143. 
Tientsin  treaty  between  the  U.  S.  and  China,  the,  155. 
Tokio's  regulated  vice,  113. 


INDEX  255 

Topography  of  China,  great  work  on,  45. 

Townsend,  Meredith,  his  essays  on  "  Asia  and  Europe," 
16. 

Trade-Guilds,   Chinese,   75. 

Trader,  Chinese,  an  expert,  72. 

Training,  age-long  of  Chinese,  74- 

Treaties  (United  States)  with  China,  155,  174,  175;  hon- 
ourable character  of,  151. 

Treatment  of  the  Chinese  in  the  U.  S.  bad,  162-166. 

Tsushima  Straits,  decisive  victory  of  Japan  in  the,  86. 

Tuan  Fang,  his  testimony  in  regard  to  missionary  work, 

234- 
Tuition,  Chinese,  free  in  all  school  grades,  132. 
Turk,  "the  unspeakable,"  in. 
Turkey,  a  New,  in. 
Tyler,  President,  patronising  character  of  his  State  paper 

to  an   Emperor   of   China,   152. 

United  States   Court  for  China,  establishment  of,   191. 

and  China  coming  together,  213. 

career  of,  one  of  masterful,  irresistible  expansion,  21, 

treaties  with  China,  151,  155,  174. 

Verbeck,  Dr.  Guido,  a  factor  in  bringing  about  religious 

liberty   in    Japan,    208. 
Violence  (American)  towards  the  Chinese  in  the  U.  S., 

165. 
Virtues,  the  Five  Constant,  53. 

Wall,  the  Great,  of  China,  32. 

Wang  An-shih,  stateman  of  Sung  dynasty,  41,  42. 

Wang  Hsia  treaty,  154. 

War,  the  Arrow,  104. 

Washington,  George,  effect  of  a  study  of  his  life  upon 

Orientals,  209. 
Wei  Hui  fu,  Chinese  city  of,  57,  103. 
Wen  Wang,  the  Chinese  Duke,  30. 
Wellesley  College,  offer  of  three  scholarships  to  Chinese 

women,  219. 
Western  barbarian's  footisg  on  Chinese  soil,  91. 
■  knowledge,  barriers  of  burned  down,  144. 

learning   introduced    and   abolition    of   the    old-style 

examination,   128. 

Powers    and    China    never    understood    each    other, 

lOI. 

"White  Peril,"  The,  quoted,  201. 
White  wax,  the,  and  its  industry,  71. 
Wiffley,  Judge  L.  R.,  of  U.  S.  Court  for  China,  good  work 
of,   191. 


256 


INDEX 


Williams,  Dr.  S.  Wells,  editor  of  "The  Chinese  Reposi- 
tory," 226. 

Williams,  Dr.,  oh  the  great  T'ang  dynasty,  38. 

Woman  in  China  and  her  subjections,  208. 

"  Woman's  Daily  Journal,"  of  Peking,  the,  138. 

Woman's  Medical  College,  Canton,  225. 

Woodbridge,  Dr.,  of  Shanghai,  states  that  native  secular 

Work,  a  condition  of  human  existence  in  China,  65. 

Wylie,  Dr.,  his  "  Notes  on  Chinese  Literature,"  37. 
press  of  China  is  not  anti-Christian,   136. 

Yale  University,  invitation  of  to  Chinese  students,  219. 
Yang  Chen,  Governor,  56. 
Yao  and  Shun,  perfect  Chinese  rulers,  29,  50. 
Yuan  Shih-K'ai,  Governor-General  and  soldier,  116. 
Yung  Le,  second  Ming  Emperor,  43. 
Yung  Wing,  Dr.,  his  prize  for  English  composition,  74. 
Yu,  the  Great,  founder  of  the  Hsia  dynasty  (2205  B.  C.)» 
30. 


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